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Ex-president Chun Doo-hwan
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Court issues warrant requiring his testimony in next hearing on Mar. 11
After ex-president Chun Doo-hwan failed to appear in court, a South Korean court issued a warrant on Jan. 7 that will require him to testify in the trial. Chun has been charged with defamation in connection with the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement. In a memoir published in Apr. 2018, Chun described the late priest Cho Cheol-hyeon (also known as Cho Pius) as “Satan wearing a mask.” Cho testified that government forces tasked with imposing martial law had fired on protesters from helicopters during the events in Gwangju. Chun was indicted without detention on May 3 on charges of libeling Cho. When Chun failed to appear at the Gwangju District Court on Monday afternoon and his attorney explained that Chun was prevented from appearing by a high fever caused by the flu, Hon. Kim Ho-seok, the judge responsible for the court’s 8th criminal division, rescheduled the hearing for Mar. 11 and declared that Chun would be hauled into court if he failed to appear yet again. The Gwangju District Court announced on Monday that it had issued a writ that could compel Chun’s attendance, which will remain valid through Mar. 11. During the seven months since the trial began in May 2017, Chun has refused to appear in court for reasons including Alzheimer's and influenza. “The point of this announcement is to let Chun know that, if he keeps playing these games and fails to appear in court again on Mar. 11, we will serve this writ and force him to attend,” said Kim Jeong-ho, an attorney who is the head of the Gwangju and South Jeolla Province branch of MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society. When a defendant in a criminal lawsuit refuses to attend the trial, the court can issue such a writ, as well as an arrest warrant, to force the defendant to attend. “My client was unable to attend this hearing because of an unanticipated medical condition. He will be sure to attend the next hearing,” Chun’s attorney said. Since Chun was indicted on defamation charges in May 2018, he has been accused of deliberately trying to delay the trial by filing multiple requests to transfer to a different court or jurisdiction. By Jung Dae-ha, Gwangju correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
