SEOUL — It’s been a season of authorized woes for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
His short-lived declaration of martial regulation on Dec. 3 first landed him in entrance of the Constitutional Courtroom — which eliminated him from workplace later that month — after which within the Seoul Central District Courtroom, the place he’s now being tried on expenses of rebellion.
There’s additionally the group of 105 irate residents suing Yoon for emotional damages associated to his energy seize, which despatched particular forces troopers to occupy the Nationwide Meeting and introduced the press briefly below navy management.
Individuals attend a rally to demand the impeachment of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
(Ahn Younger-joon / Related Press)
Filed shortly after South Korean lawmakers voted to overrule Yoon’s martial regulation order final yr, the lawsuit is demanding compensation of 100,000 gained ($73) for every of its plaintiffs. The primary listening to is due later this month.
“The defendant’s declaration of emergency martial regulation and the actions that adopted had been illegal, violating the plaintiffs’ primary rights as South Korean residents similar to the liberty to at least one’s life and physique and the assure of human dignity, along with inflicting psychological hurt similar to concern, anxiousness, discomfort and disgrace,” the criticism stated.
Behind these phrases is Lee Gum-gyu, a 52-year-old legal professional who makes a speciality of city improvement regulation, however has grow to be nationally recognized for going through down presidents of their impeachment trials.
The primary was conservative president Park Geun-hye, whom Lee, as a member of the legislature’s authorized group, helped oust in 2016 following a serious graft scandal.
The second — and the one different South Korean chief to be faraway from workplace — was Yoon.
As a member of the Nationwide Meeting’s authorized group within the Constitutional Courtroom trial that confirmed Yoon’s impeachment, Lee used his closing argument to talk of the concern he felt for his son, who was a conscript within the navy.
“The actual fact of emergency martial regulation itself crammed me with concern, however the thought that my son is likely to be deployed to implement it was much more horrifying,” he stated.
The civil go well with, he says, is essentially symbolic — one ultimate rebuke of Yoon. It’s why Lee gathered precisely 105 plaintiffs: the variety of pro-Yoon legislators who boycotted his impeachment.
Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, left, arrives on the Seoul Central District Courtroom in 2017.
(Kim Hong-Ji / Related Press)
And the asking sum of 100,000 gained ($73) every?
“I thought of preserving it at 10,000 gained ($7.30), however that appeared like too little. My pleasure wouldn’t let me,” Lee stated.
“Clearly there isn’t a system for one thing like this, however 100,000 gained simply appeared extra applicable.”
The success fee of emotional damages claims in opposition to former presidents shouldn’t be excessive.
The closest instance is a sequence of comparable fits filed by South Korean residents in opposition to Park in 2016. They sought 500,000 gained ($364) per plaintiff.
However the Supreme Courtroom dismissed these claims in 2020, saying that “even when there have been South Korean residents who felt feelings like anger because of the defendant’s actions, it can’t be stated that this constituted a degree of psychological misery that necessitates compensation for each citizen.”
Nonetheless, Lee figures that his go well with in opposition to Yoon has not less than a touch greater probability of success, given the far graver offense at hand.
“The case in opposition to Park was associated to corruption — it wasn’t a case of the president unconstitutionally infringing on folks’s primary rights,” he stated. “The martial regulation forces really went to the Nationwide Meeting and pointed their rifles at legislators and their employees. I do assume that folks’s proper to life was instantly threatened.”
Some authorized specialists agree.
“I’m additionally curious whether or not this can work or not,” stated a decide in Seoul who requested anonymity to touch upon an ongoing case. “Underneath present jurisprudence, I don’t assume it’s completely unattainable.”
Given South Korea’s historical past with authoritarianism, Lee argues, the declare to emotional misery isn’t simply courtroom theater. South Koreans lived below a dictatorship as lately because the Nineteen Eighties. Political repression and violence are nonetheless a part of the nation’s reminiscence.
The final declaration of martial regulation was made in Might 1980 by the Chun Doo-hwan navy junta, which despatched particular forces models to violently quash pro-democracy protests within the metropolis of Gwangju. Greater than 160 civilians had been killed, a lot of them gunned down by troopers within the streets.
South Korean authorities troopers take prisoners to a set level within the riot-battered metropolis of Gwangju, South Korea, on Might 27, 1980. Korean Martial Legislation forces seized management of the town in a predawn assault.
(Sadayuki Mikami / Related Press)
Lee, who’s from Gwangju, remembers watching a tank roll down the road behind his home as a toddler.
“The nationwide trauma from these occasions led to an actual and deep concern in lots of South Koreans,” he stated.
Han Ki-chang, a actual property agent and one of many 105 plaintiffs, says that he suffered from “martial regulation insomnia.”
The time period entered the favored vernacular in the previous few months and has been lined by the nationwide media as an anecdotal phenomenon, with some older South Koreans saying it stirred panicked recollections of dwelling below authoritarian rule.
“It was actual. I had bother sleeping in January and February,” Han stated. “And I might inform I wasn’t the one one. At any time when I’d message folks or put up in a bunch chat in the midst of the night time, lots of people would reply, saying they wanted to sleep however couldn’t.”
Not less than one different group is getting ready their very own emotional damages lawsuit in opposition to the previous president.
Lee, the legal professional, expects that there can be much more fits as a result of he has been sending out copies of his criticism to anybody who desires it. They’ll simply fill of their names and file their very own.
“If we win this case, which may make it potential for all 52 million South Korean residents to say damages,” he stated.
He shortly did the mathematics: at $7.30 per individual, a complete of $380 million.
