Yoon Indicted for Abuse of Power, Prosecution Requests Case Consolidation
"Geonjin Gate": Mrs. Kim's Residence and Office Searched
On May 1, prosecutors indicted former President Yoon Suk-yeol on additional charges of abuse of power, while he is already on trial for being the ringleader of an insurrection. They also requested that the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 25 (Presiding Judge Ji Guyon), which is handling Yoon's current case, consolidate the new charges into the ongoing trial.
When prosecutors initially indicted former President Yoon as a suspect in the illegal declaration of martial law, they applied only the charge of being the ringleader of an insurrection. This was due to the constitutional immunity that prevents a sitting president from being prosecuted for crimes other than insurrection or treason. However, with the Constitutional Court's dismissal of Yoon from office on April 4, that protection was removed, allowing prosecutors to add the abuse of power charge to the case. A prosecution official stated, "The facts of the abuse of power charge are not different from those of the insurrection charge, so we thought it would be better to indict quickly and have them tried together."
Former Defense Minister Kim Yonghyun and others have already been indicted and are on trial for abuse of power. Prosecutors included in Yoon's abuse of power indictment the allegations that he deployed military and police forces to the National Assembly, the National Election Commission, the Election Training Institute, and the Democratic Party headquarters, where they blocked and inspected facilities and restricted access.
The prosecution chose to indict without detention because the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) had previously obtained an arrest warrant for Yoon on charges of insurrection and abuse of power. Under the Criminal Procedure Act, a new arrest warrant cannot be requested for the same criminal facts.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office, which is investigating shaman Jeonseongbae's alleged improper solicitation, is considering summoning Mrs. Kim as early as next week. On April 30, prosecutors conducted a search and seizure at former President Yoon's private residence and at the office of Kim Keonhee's company, Covana Contents.
Jeonseongbae is under investigation for allegedly receiving expensive necklaces and luxury bags from a Unification Church associate, supposedly as gifts for Mrs. Kim. The search and seizure were intended to confirm whether these items were actually delivered to Mrs. Kim, but prosecutors reportedly did not find them. Regarding the Unification Church's attempted delivery of gifts, prosecutors are also investigating whether there were solicitations related to the acquisition of a news channel and support for official development assistance.
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