A South Korean court yesterday assigned five state attorneys to defend disgraced former president Park Geun-hye, following her defense team’s resignation last week in protest at the extension of her detention period until April next year.
Park is standing trial accused of bribery, abuse of power and coercion, having been forced to step down in March after South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach her at the end of last year.
She has been held in detention since late March, although under South Korean law a defendant in a criminal trial at a lower court can be detained for a maximum of six months.
Citing concerns that Park could destroy evidence if she was released, the Seoul Central District Court issued an additional arrest warrant on Oct. 13 to extend her detention by six months.
The court’s move prompted her entire defense team to quit in protest at a session on Monday last week. Having lost her legal team, Park gave health reasons for her failure to attend a session three days later.
“After witnessing the collapse of the presumption of innocence and the principle of investigation without detention, we concluded that our efforts to defend Park will be meaningless,” Park’s former lawyer, Yoo Yeong-ha, told the court last week.
“The court’s decision to issue an additional arrest warrant will remain as one of the humiliating moments in South Korea’s judiciary history,” Yoo said.
Five state attorneys had been appointed to take over Park’s defense, a Seoul Central District Court spokesman said.
Citing court sources, Yonhap news agency reported the new defense team would have to review about 120,000 pages of court documents to prepare for upcoming hearings.
Park’s supporters have asked a UN body to investigate whether Park was being prevented from getting proper medical treatment and whether there was possible violation of her human rights due to her detention.
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