Former President Yoon Suk-yeol is seen attending the first hearing of his trial on charges of obstructing official duties and abusing power, held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on September 26. Yonhap News.

The court handling the sedition case against former President Yoon Suk-yeol has announced that it will consolidate the cases involving former National Police Agency Commissioner Cho Ji-ho and former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, and conclude the hearings by early January of next year.

The Criminal Sentence Division 25 (Presiding Judge Ji Gwi-yeon) of the Seoul Central District Court held an adjourned hearing on the case of Yoon's alleged sedition and abuse of power on the 10th.

The court stated on this day, "We plan to consolidate and conclude the three cases," adding, "We intend to consolidate them around December 29th to 30th."

The court also announced that it would schedule additional dates and hold trials even during the court's winter recess, as the initially expected witness examination schedule has been extended.

"We had intended to conclude at the current stage by the end of December, but we believe we must conclude and deliver a verdict by early January at the latest," the court said, "We plan to schedule more dates in early January."

Yoon Suk-yeol directly refuted the testimony of a Military Security Command official who appeared as a witness on this day, stating that the order to deploy to the National Election Commission (NEC) was problematic.

Colonel Yoo Jae-won, head of the Cyber Security Division of the Military Security Command, who received the deployment order on December 3rd of last year, testified as a witness on this day that on the night of December 3rd, former Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Brigadier General Jeong Seong-woo, under instructions from former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, stated that the mission was to secure the NEC's IT office and the server room of 'Yeol-eum Jo-sa Kkot' (a media outlet), and instructed to "take the hard drives if that's not possible."

In response, Colonel Yoo argued that the Cyber Security Division personnel did not have investigative authority and that discussions were held the following morning about the legality of the Cyber Security Division and the order itself.

Yoon Suk-yeol then asked, "Martial law is similar to military rule, and when martial law is declared, the martial law authorities are legally empowered to directly manage or supervise administrative and judicial affairs, excluding the legislative branch. Seizing materials from government ministries for investigative purposes is a separate matter, but do you know that it is within the scope of what martial law authorities can do to inspect or examine the data or database status there?"

When Colonel Yoo replied, "That must also be done legally and according to procedure; you can't just order to take it...", Yoon Suk-yeol countered, "It's not taking it, it's going to inspect it."

At the end of his testimony, Colonel Yoo stated, "Please record that even within the Military Security Command, which is considered the main culprit of the December 3rd martial law, there were forces resisting it."

To Colonel Lee Jong-hoon, head of the Military Security Division of the Military Security Command, Yoon Suk-yeol said, "The order was issued 1 hour and 20 minutes after the declaration of martial law, and after a considerable time, a resolution to lift martial law was passed by the National Assembly. Afterward, we did not even go near the destination, the NEC. Regarding the mission, I did nothing."

The special prosecution team countered, "You are asking backwards about the outcome that the Military Security Command personnel did not go to the scene, implying 'since nothing happened, it's not a problem.' Didn't the Military Security Command personnel move to the NEC as a last resort because not deploying would be considered insubordination?"

Colonel Lee replied, "Although I thought the mission to deploy to the NEC could be legally problematic, I believed that I could move within an acceptable range because not carrying out the mission could result in punishment for insubordination, so I only moved."

Republic of Korea Army Counter-Intelligence Corps. Provided by the Ministry of National Defense.

Lieutenant Colonel Yang Seung-cheol, head of the Guard and Security Unit of the Military Security Command, also stated that after receiving the order to deploy to the NEC under Proclamation No. 2, he and the eight people present with him assessed the legitimacy of the mission and determined it was not legitimate.

He added, "Although we concluded that it was problematic at the time, we deployed because we could be punished for insubordination if we did not deploy."

Regarding this testimony, Yoon Suk-yeol asked, "The work of the NEC is administrative work in itself. Did you not review it under the Martial Law Act and only look at the proclamation?"

Lieutenant Colonel Yang replied, "I judged it based solely on the proclamation. The order that came to us was about acquiring data, while the proclamation was about people."

Yoon Suk-yeol asked again, "Wasn't the decision made to deploy after conducting a legal review in a free atmosphere?" To which Lieutenant Colonel Yang replied, "It was not a free and comfortable atmosphere."

Jeon Ha-gyu, former spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, also appeared as a witness. Seemingly aware of the "Chungam faction" controversy, Yoon Suk-yeol asked the former spokesperson, "The commander of the Military Security Command is from Chungam High School," adding, "Are there any particularly prominent individuals?" The former spokesperson replied that there were discussions among reporters that there were not many alumni from Chungam High School.

The court has scheduled Hong Jang-won, former First Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service, to testify as a witness on the 13th.

Yonhap News