The Constitutional Court of Korea rules to dismiss President Yoon Suk-yeol: the first president to be impeached and removed from office for deploying police and military.

On the 4th, South Korea's Constitutional Court delivered a judgment on the impeachment case of President Yoon Suk-yeol. All eight judges unanimously ruled to dismiss Yoon Suk-yeol from his position. As a result, Yoon Suk-yeol has become the second president in South Korean constitutional history to be impeached and removed from office.

Acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-pyo read the main text of the dismissal of President Yoon Suk-yeol at 11:22 AM that day. The effectiveness of the Constitutional Court's ruling came into effect when the presiding judge read out the main text of the ruling. Yoon Suk-yeol was immediately relieved of his presidential duties.

The court's decision pointed out that Yoon Suk-yeol had mobilized military and police to undermine constitutional institutions such as the National Assembly, seriously infringing upon the basic rights of citizens, and clearly violated his duty as president to uphold the constitution. The maintenance of constitutional order by dismissing Yoon Suk-yeol far outweighs any potential losses.

The Constitutional Court also rejected Yoon Suk-yeol's claim that "the emergency decree was of a warning nature," stating that this assertion contradicts the purpose of the Emergency Decree as defined by law. At the same time, the court determined that Yoon Suk-yeol had attempted to prevent the National Assembly from voting on the resolution to lift the emergency decree and intended to use the Army Counterintelligence Command to arrest key political and legal figures, which posed a serious threat to democratic institutions. The court confirmed that there were no procedural flaws in the impeachment case proposed by the National Assembly.

This is the final ruling made by the Constitutional Court 38 days after the last debate of the impeachment case ended on February 25. On December 3rd last year, Yoon Suk-yeol announced the implementation of an emergency decree, and the National Assembly passed the impeachment motion on the 14th of the same month. Since then, the impeachment trial process began and finally concluded after 111 days.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1828446027500555/

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