Former South Korean president Park Geun-hye’s defense lawyers yesterday resigned en masse in protest at what they called a biased corruption trial, as Park described the proceedings as “political revenge.”
Park faces multiple charges including bribery, coercion and abuse of power for offering governmental favors to tycoons.
She was impeached by the legislature after months of mass protests and the constitutional court upheld the decision in March, dismissing her from office. She went on criminal trial in May.
The warrant for her detention was extended six months last week, with the court citing the risk that she could destroy evidence if released.
At yesterday’s hearing, all seven of her lawyers submitted their resignations, a court spokesman said.
The lawyers protested at the extension of the warrant, saying that the principle of the presumption of innocence was “collapsing,” Yonhap news agency reported.
“As we’ve reached a conclusion that any defense argument for the defendant is meaningless, all of us decided to resign,” defense lawyer Yoo Yeong-ha told the court.
The court asked the lawyers to reconsider, as the proceedings cannot continue without defense lawyers.
State attorneys are to be appointed to defend Park if her lawyers insist on withdrawing, but the replacement will take time, as new representatives would have to review more than 100,000 pages of evidence.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s meaningless to believe that the court will handle the case only in accordance with the constitution and conscience” in the face of external political winds and public pressure, Park said in her first comments to the court since the proceedings began.
The past six months were a “horrible and miserable time,” during which she had “endured pain in my body and mind,” she said.
Park arrived at the courthouse in handcuffs and looked drawn, but insisted that she was innocent.
“I never accepted or granted requests for favors while in office,” she said. “I believe it has been fully revealed during the course of the trial that the corresponding suspicions are not true.”
She told the court that she hoped she would be the last victim of “political revenge in the name of the rule of law.”
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