Former President Yoon Suk Yeol and former Ministry of National Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who are on appeal for charges related to the 12·3 insurrection, repeatedly filed recusal motions seeking to change the bench, but the court dismissed them all.

According to the legal community on the 20th, Criminal Division 12-1 (Presiding Judge Lee Seung-cheol), the Seoul High Court panel dedicated to insurrection cases, dismissed all motions to recuse the judges that were filed against it by the teams for former President Yoon, former Minister Kim, and former Defense Intelligence Command chief Noh Sang-won.

Under the Criminal Procedure Act, when there is concern that a judge may conduct an unfair trial, the prosecution or the defendant may file a motion to exclude that judge. Earlier, on the 14th, the defense for Yoon filed a recusal motion with Criminal Division 12-1, which is hearing the first appeals session on charges including engagement in key duties related to an insurrection. The reason given was that this division had delivered a ruling in the appeal of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on the charge of engagement in key duties related to an insurrection with a preconceived view regarding the insurrection situation.

The teams for former Minister Kim and former Commander Noh also filed recusal motions. Their contention was that this division lacked authority to decide on its own the constitutionality related to the law on insurrection-dedicated panels, yet it dismissed and rejected the request from the defense for Kim for referral of a constitutional review.

After Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Yoon Sung-sik), another insurrection-dedicated panel, took charge of the hearing on the recusal motions, the defense for Kim filed yet another recusal motion on the 18th, this time challenging the fairness of the review.

On that day, Division 1 decided by summary dismissal and did not accept their arguments. A summary dismissal is when the division itself promptly rejects a recusal motion if it is clear that the motion aims to delay the trial.

After Division 1 summarily dismissed the case that was a ‘recusal motion against the recusal motion’, Division 12-1 also dismissed all the recusal motions they had filed. As a result, the trials of former President Yoon and others, which had been briefly paused, will continue before the same panel.