Constitutional Court, First Preparatory Hearing for Im Seong-geun Former Chief Judge's Impeachment Trial Today

Constitutional Court Grand Bench. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The first preparatory hearing for the impeachment trial of former Busan High Court Chief Judge Im Seong-geun will be held on the 24th.

The Constitutional Court will conduct the first preparatory hearing for the impeachment trial of former Chief Judge Im in the small courtroom starting at 2 p.m. on the same day.

The preparatory hearing is a procedure where both the National Assembly, which filed the impeachment, and the respondent, former Chief Judge Im, decide on the list of evidence to be submitted and the method of argument before the full trial begins. Attendance by the parties themselves is not mandatory at the preparatory hearing, so only the representatives from both sides will attend.

Former Chief Judge Im has appointed former Constitutional Court Justice Lee Dong-heup, former Korean Bar Association President Kim Hyun, Kang Chan-woo, the lead attorney of the law firm Pyeongsan, and Yoon Geun-soo, the lead attorney of the law firm Haein, as his legal representatives.

On the National Assembly side, lawyers Yang Hong-seok, Shin Mi-yong, and Lee Myung-woong have been appointed as representatives, and it is known that former Constitutional Court Justice Song Doo-hwan, who served as president of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun), is acting as the team leader.

Former Chief Judge Im is accused of involvement in three trials: the defamation case against Kato Tatsuya, former Seoul bureau chief of Sankei Shimbun; the gambling charges against Oh Seung-hwan and Im Chang-yong; and the arrest and injury charges against Minbyun lawyers during the Ssangyong Motor protests.

In the first trial of the criminal case, former Chief Judge Im was acquitted based on the legal principle that 'without authority, there can be no abuse of authority.' However, the National Assembly judged that his involvement in the trials violated the Constitution and passed the impeachment motion on the 4th of last month.

Earlier, former Chief Judge Im filed a motion to disqualify Justice Lee Seok-tae (age 68, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 14), the presiding judge of this impeachment trial, citing that he was related to two of the three trials that were grounds for impeachment, but the motion was rejected.

At the time the National Assembly filed the impeachment trial, former Chief Judge Im was still a sitting judge, but his term expired on the 28th of last month.

Since former Chief Judge Im is no longer a judge, even if the Constitutional Court finds the grounds for impeachment valid, it will be difficult to issue an order accepting the impeachment trial in the form of 'removing Judge Im Seong-geun from office.'

However, there remains the possibility that the Constitutional Court will publicly disclose the substantive judgment results by issuing a 'dismissal' order while declaring in the reasoning that former Chief Judge Im’s involvement in the trials was an unconstitutional act infringing on judicial independence.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.