TNow the former president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, faces the death penalty for his failed declaration of martial law on December 3, 2024, which the law considers an attempt to insurrection. It has caused a deep political crisis in a country with exacerbated ideological divisions. Announced on Friday, April 4 by the Constitutional Court, the president’s trial tok time to be approved. On March 8, the President received an early release due to a procedure error, which the Prosecutor’s Office decided not to challenge.
Drawing parallels with the controversies surrounding the conviction in France of the extreme right -wing leader Marine Le Pen, this treatment fed collusion suspicions between the Judiciary and political power and revived the criticisms of a pratron of prosecution out of control. Yoon, a former attorney general, maintained solid friendships within judicial circles. After his choice in 2022, South Korea fell into the V-DeM classification (varieties of democracy) of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, which Democrat progresses, due to pressures on the Judiciary.
In practice, there are no indications of broad institutional politicization, but the political divisions and the media coverage of the cases involving elected officials lead to interpretations through a partisan lens. Christophe Duvert, researcher of Sociology and Professor of Law at the University of Sonegsil in Seoul and author of I voies de la Justice and Coraée du Sud (“The paths of justice in South Korea”) said that the Koreans of their judicial system perceive their judicial system as a complex and even biased in favor of the rich.
Collusion between prosecution and power
This voice of perception of the turbulent history of the Judiciary, explained Christophe Duvert, defining it as based “on a mixture of confucian and” modern “aspirations whose antagonism adds to its complexity” and whose power has long served the authorities for a long time. Duration Japanese colonization, from 1910 to 1945, the occupant used the justice system to fulfill his domination. After liberation, the system remained in place, despite some adjustments influenced by Americans. Only the configuration changed. The Police, who was discredited for collaborating with the Japanese occupant, lost his responsibilities to the Prosecutor’s Office.
It has 60.12% of this article to read. The rest is only for subscribers.
]
