The bribery case against former President Moon Jae-in is expected to proceed as a jury trial in January. The court accepted his daughter, Moon Da-hye, as a witness and set out the broad scope of testimony, including the number of witnesses and time allotted for questioning. The court plans to fix the detailed trial schedule and conclude pretrial procedures at the next hearing.
The 21st Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Judge Cho Soon-pyo, held the seventh pretrial hearing on the 22nd for Moon and former Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Sang-jik, who were indicted on bribery charges under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.
Pretrial hearings are procedures for organizing the plan for future proceedings ahead of the formal trial. Defendants are not required to attend. Moon did not appear, and only Lee was present in the courtroom.
The court said it plans to hold the jury trial immediately after the court recess ends in January. "If a jury trial goes ahead, we need to secure a courtroom," the court said. "It is difficult to specify a courtroom and dates, but it appears we will have only about three weeks, from Jan. 10 to Jan. 29." The court takes the position that the jury trial must be held within January because both associate judges, excluding the presiding judge, are scheduled to be transferred in the regular reshuffle.
Accordingly, the court announced the questioning schedule for a total of 15 witnesses, including eight additional witnesses accepted that day. The court expects witness examination to take about 5.5 days. In addition to the seven witnesses accepted at the previous hearing, it accepted three witnesses requested by prosecutors and five it deemed necessary. Moon's daughter, Moon Da-hye, was among those accepted. "Considering the jurors' attention span, it is difficult to question a single witness for more than three hours," the court said, asking both sides to keep questioning concise.
The court said, however, that it could accept up to about four more witnesses if needed. "Additional witnesses can be accepted up to the next hearing," it said, asking prosecutors to reapply if they have witnesses they need, adding that it would review up to four. The court plans to conclude pretrial procedures after resuming the pretrial hearing on Oct. 20.
Moon was indicted in April last year on charges of receiving bribes totaling about 200 million won ($143,000) in the form of salary and housing costs, after his then son-in-law, surnamed Seo, was hired by Thai Eastar Jet, which Lee effectively owned. Thai Eastar Jet is an overseas affiliate of Eastar Jet, also effectively owned by Lee. Lee served as chairman of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency during the Moon administration.
With both Moon's and Lee's legal teams seeking a jury trial, the court has used the pretrial hearings to carry out an evidence-screening procedure and define the scope of witnesses and evidence. The evidence-screening procedure allows the court to exclude unnecessary evidence by assessing its relevance to the case. It was introduced through a revision of the Criminal Procedure Rules in February last year. Proceedings were then suspended for a time following a change in the bench in February this year, before resuming in July.
