President Park Geun-hye is not likely to attend the Constitutional Court’s final hearing Monday, which means she would end her impeachment trial without her direct testimony, lawmakers said Sunday. 

The disgraced president has so far been absent from all of her impeachment trials while avoding face-to-face questioning by the special investigation team.
 

“(President Park) would not want to face questions from the justices or the plaintiff, as she can make her defense through a written statement,” said Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the Bareun Party.

Rep. Kwon is the chairman of the parliamentary impeachment committee and therefore the plaintiff representative in Park’s impeachment trial.

The parliamentary committee members and their lawyers held a joint meeting at the National Assembly on Sunday to draft their final plea and to provide against Park’s possible actions.

The court earlier requested Park to show up at court and confirm her stance by Sunday.

But the president did not attend the first pleading held on Feb. 3 and has persistently delayed her decision on showing up at the final pleading.

According to the Constitutional Court Act, the defendant in an impeachment case is under no obligation to appear in court. Even former President Roh Moo-hyun did not attend his impeachment trial in 2004.

Despite the pressing timeline and mounting speculations on the president’s nonattendance, Cheong Wa Dae and Park’s lawyers refrained from confirming Park’s stance Sunday.

As for the speculations that Park’s lawyers may also boycott Monday’s pleading so as to cause further delays, the lawmaker claimed that such a move would be “meaningless.”

“The court has questioned most of the witnesses requested by the defendants, so there is now no reason for (Park’s) representatives to miss out on the final pleading or to resign en masse,” he said.

“Nor will nonattendance or resignation (of the lawyers) do any good to the defendant.”

The lawmaker also made a detailed rebuttal of the claim made by Park’s lawyers and a number of the members of the ruling conservative Liberty Korea Party that the entire impeachment process was inappropriate.

“When it comes to presidential impeachment, the sooner the process (is carried out) the better,” Rep. Kweon said, dismissing protests that the trial was handled in a rushed manner.

“A whole three months from the passage of the impeachment resolution until the court’s final ruling is not so short a period.”

He also denied arguments that the impeachment judgment should be made in a complete nine-judge system. The Constitutional Court is currently operated in an eight-member system under the chairmanship of acting Justice Lee Jung-mi, due to the retirement of former Chief Justice Park Han-chul in late January.


By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)