On the morning of the 14th, the legal team, upon concluding President Yoon Suk-yeol's final hearing, responds to reporters' questions. From left to right are lawyers Kim Ji-mi, Yoon Gap-geun, and Song Jin-ho. [Photo = YouTube Capture] 

Lawyer Yoon Gap-geun, upon leaving the final hearing regarding martial law involving President Yoon Suk-yeol, stated to reporters that "the special prosecutor's claims are groundless delusions."

Lawyer Yoon stated, "The facts alleged in the indictment itself are completely fictitious and delusional. Facts that have been fabricated and edited by political forces were presented in court without any filtering by prosecutors, who are supposed to be legal experts."

He further argued, "It was clearly revealed in today's trial that the facts claimed by the special prosecutor are either false, different from the truth, or not substantiated by evidence."

Lawyer Yoon provided an example, stating, "The special prosecutor claimed that the President intended to create a de facto legislative body through martial law and extend his term through constitutional amendments to achieve long-term rule. However, a constitutional amendment requires the National Assembly as an essential procedure. A national referendum cannot be held without dissolving the National Assembly. The fact that they are talking about an impossible scenario under current law as a plan for long-term rule starkly illustrates how groundless these delusions are," he sharply criticized.

Lawyer Yoon also mentioned that there were many inaccurate statements, saying, "They used the expression that Noh Sang-hyun, former Commander, was the President's hidden power, but there is absolutely no evidence that Commander Noh Sang-won met with or spoke to the President."

He added, "They even claim that the President ordered Hong Jang-won, First Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service, to track the location of certain politicians for arrest, but this is something even Hong Jang-won is not stating. Furthermore, they claim that the President ordered Commander Kwak Jong-geun to cut off electricity, but even Commander Kwak himself said that cutting off electricity was his own idea."

Lawyer Yoon remarked, "Seeing them seek the death penalty based on such groundless delusions, I was aghast, wondering if this is truly what the South Korean prosecution should be doing. The death penalty involves depriving a life and permanently isolating that individual from society. So, was there any criminal act that warranted depriving former President Yoon Suk-yeol of his life and permanently isolating him from society?" he questioned.

He further stated, "Despite this, the special prosecutor's attempt to isolate President Yoon from society is either to conceal the legitimacy of the reasons, requirements, and legal issues related to the martial law that the President claims, or it is a protective instinct to eliminate someone who knows too many of their weaknesses and thus protect themselves."

He also noted, "In many aspects, the special prosecutor made their sentencing comparisons with former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo regarding the May 18th incident. However, when comparing the martial law at that time with the martial law in this case, the duration and the extent of damage are different. At that time, there were bloody incidents in Gwangju, and the period of martial law lasted for a considerable time. Moreover, the entities responsible for that martial law were not the President. In this case, the President is the subject of martial law. These cannot be compared, and even if compared, they cannot be used as grounds for sentencing," he concluded his response to reporters' questions.

Reporter Lim Yo-hee