South Korea's Constitutional Court said on Monday (December 16) it will hold the first hearing in the case reviewing President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment on December 27, a spokesperson said, Reuters reports.
Earlier in the day, the Constitutional Court began reviewing the impeachment of President Yoon over his December 3 martial law attempt, starting a process to decide if he will be removed from office, while investigators plan to question him this week.
The court has up to six months to decide whether to remove Yoon from office or to reinstate him. The first hearing will be "preparatory" to confirm major legal issues of the case and schedule among other matters, spokesperson Lee Jean said at a news conference.
In 2017, the court took three months to issue a ruling to strip then-President Park Geun-hye's presidency following her impeachment for abusing the powers of her office.
A joint team of investigators from the police, the defence ministry and an anti-corruption agency are planning to call Yoon in for questioning on Wednesday (December 18), a police official told Reuters. On Sunday (December 15) Yoon did not appear in response to a summons for questioning by a separate investigation by the prosecutors' office, Yonhap news reported. Yoon cited he was still forming a legal team for his defence as the reason, it said.
