South Korean president’s confidante snubs impeachment trial
SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — Disgraced South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s longtime friend at the centre of a massive corruption scandal refused to testify at Park’s impeachment trial on Tuesday, with lawmakers alleging that it was a stalling tactic.
The constitutional Court had expected to hear from Choi Soon-sil, a confidante of Park who’s currently jailed and on trial herself for allegedly using her connections with the president to extort money and favours from companies and unlawfully interfere with government affairs.
But Choi (pronounced Chwey) submitted documents to the court saying she was unable to testify because she had to prepare for her own trial. Two jailed former presidential aides who purportedly helped Choi also refused to testify, saying they needed to prepare for their own trials as well.
Lawmakers, who function as prosecutors at the impeachment trial, raised suspicions that Park’s lawyers were controlling the witnesses in order to stall.