South Korea: Ex-President Yoon skips insurrection trial for third straight week

Seoul, July 24 South Korea's former President Yoon Suk Yeol did not attend his insurrection trial for the third consecutive week Thursday, again citing poor health.

The 10th hearing of the trial opened at the Seoul Central District Court without the appearance of Yoon, who is currently under arrest at the Seoul Detention Centre in Uiwang, just south of the Capital.

"Since he has not appeared consecutively, we will begin investigation proceedings in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code and criminal procedure rules," the court said.

"We will verify with the detention centre whether he is in fact in poor health and whether it is possible to bring him in."

Yoon is standing trial on charges of leading an insurrection and abusing his power through his failed bid to impose martial law in December.

The hearing proceeded as an extraordinary session to question witnesses for the case.

Special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team protested Yoon had attended all nine hearings prior to his second arrest earlier this month without complaining about his health and even attended a separate court hearing last week that reviewed the legality of his arrest.

"Following absences from the two previous hearings, he has again failed to appear without legitimate grounds," they said.

"We ask the court to issue a warrant to bring him in as he has failed to appear three consecutive times in disregard of his duty as a defendant to attend."

Yoon's lawyers claimed his absence was also partly due to questions about the legality of special counsel Cho's team taking over the prosecution's indictments against the former president.

On Saturday, the team additionally indicted him on charges of violating the rights of Cabinet members, creating a false martial law document and ordering the deletion of phone call records, among other offences.

The indictments came days after Yoon was placed in custody a second time over the martial law attempt, Yonhap news agency reported.

The Seoul Central District Court said Thursday the first preparatory hearing for the trial on the new charges will be held August 19.

The new trial will be handled by a division different from the one overseeing the insurrection trial.

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