Seoul : A special counsel team indicted former South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Friday on charges of abetting former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed imposition of martial law.
Han was indicted without physical detention on charges of abetting the ringleader of an insurrection, perjury, falsifying and destroying official documents, and other offences, according to special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team, Yonhap News Agency reported.
“The defendant was the highest constitutional institution that could have blocked the president’s unconstitutional and illegal martial law,” assistant special counsel Park Ji-young said in a briefing.
“Even though he knew the president would violate the people’s basic rights and trample on the constitutional order, (he) instead participated by taking measures to secure its procedural legitimacy.”
Cho’s team believes Han failed to uphold his responsibilities as prime minister to keep the former president in check and instead abetted his martial law bid on December 3 by proposing a Cabinet meeting before its declaration.
In the indictment, the team alleged that Han was simply focused on reaching a quorum for the Cabinet meeting, rather than actually reviewing the declaration with other Cabinet members.
The team suspects he was also involved in drafting and later destroying a revised proclamation intended to enhance the legitimacy of the decree.
Han allegedly signed the document — drafted after the martial law was lifted — but later called for its disposal due to issues it may raise if word got out of the timing of its creation.
He also stands accused of lying under oath at the Constitutional Court and the National Assembly that he was not aware Yoon had given him a copy of the martial law declaration until after the decree was lifted.
Park said Han’s actions suggest that the former prime minister believed that Yoon’s martial law would succeed.
“In order for such historical tragedies to not happen ever again, we hope a wise judgment is made (at court),” she said.
The indictment comes just two days after a Seoul court rejected a warrant for Han’s arrest, saying there is little concern he will flee or destroy evidence and “room for dispute regarding legal assessments of key facts.”
Former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and former Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun — former members of Yoon’s Cabinet — have been indicted under detention over their alleged roles in the former president’s martial law bid.
Yoon has been standing trial on charges of leading an insurrection and abusing his power through his short-lived martial law imposition. He is currently in custody at Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, just south of Seoul.
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