[Park Geun-hye, Choi Soon-sil Scandal] Impeachment Trial May End as Early as Mid February

Citizens pass by the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where the impeachment trial of President Park Geun-hye is in progress.

The Constitutional Court may reach a judgment on the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye as early as mid February. This is on condition that the bench does not call further witnesses and that Park Han-chul, president of the Constitutional Court, takes part in the final decision. If the court decides to ratify the impeachment, the election for the next president will be held in mid April.

The Constitutional Court will practically confirm its schedule to question witnesses in the eighth proceeding held on January 23. On January 19 when the bench adopted the statements given to the prosecutors by 46 major people as evidence, the prosecution withdrew its request for additional witnesses saying, “There is no need to call the eight people, whose appearance before the court has yet to be decided.” The prosecution is seeking an early end to the trial. However, at the time, the bench said, “We will question the three witnesses whom we decided to call in the eighth proceeding on January 23 as scheduled and determine whether to call the remaining five witnesses that day.”

The prosecution decided not to question the three witnesses who are to appear in the eighth proceeding and just cross-examine the witnesses on questionable parts that may emerge in the questioning by the president‘s attorneys. Thus the questioning of Kim Chong, former second vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, as well as the questioning of Cha Eun-taek, former head of the Creative Economy Initiative and Lee Seung-cheol, vice chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries is expected to end quietly.

The prosecution decided not to review the investigation records by Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo’s team either for an earlier ruling. Last year, the prosecutors accused President Park Geun-hye of misfeasance in connection to the fund raising of the MI-R Foundation and the K-Sports Foundation, but the independent counsel believes the president allegedly received bribes in exchange for solicitation from the chaebol. The current prosecution believes that the charges of bribery and misfeasance are both serious crimes and that there is no significant difference between them as the grounds for impeachment.

They also decided to reduce the number of reasons for the impeachment and concentrate on constitutional violations. Kweon Seong-dong, the prosecution explained, “We plan to ignore the discussions on whether the charges should be bribery or coercion and reorganize the grounds for impeachment, focusing on whether she violated the Constitution.”

Meanwhile, President Park‘s representatives are trying to extend the impeachment trial as long as possible. President Park’s legal representatives plan to make a massive request for new witnesses in their defense on January 23. Attorney Lee Jung-hwan, one of the president‘s representatives said, “It is difficult to accept 100% of the prosecutors’ investigation. The prosecutors may have investigated what they found necessary, but they did not investigate the parts that we think are necessary.”

So far, the Constitutional Court has adopted the witnesses for up to the ninth proceeding on January 25. Therefore, if the Constitutional Court does not adopt any additional witnesses, the proceedings will end on January 25. Even if they adopt a handful of more witnesses, the proceedings will end by early February. It then will take about two weeks for the judges to deliberate the case and prepare a written ruling.

The legal circle is focused on whether Park Han-chul, president of the Constitutional Court, whose term ends on January 31, will be able to take part in the final decision. One person from the judicial circle said, “If the Constitutional Court reaches a decision before Park retires, it will be a ‘complete ruling’ with the names of all nine justices stated in the written ruling. If that happens, the ruling may be announced in mid February.”

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