Special prosecutor "trial delayed due to Justice Choi Sang-mok's recusal"... Longer than average for Supreme Court hearings (comprehensive)

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Bit-na and Lee Bae-eum = The special prosecutor Cho Eun-seok's team for insurrection called for a speedy decision in relation to the case of former Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, which has been under review at the Supreme Court for more than four months due to a judicial recusal request.

The Supreme Court hearing period for former Deputy Prime Minister Choi's case is significantly longer than the average processing time of 1.1 months for applications for exclusion, avoidance, and avoidance of criminal cases in the first half of this year.

According to the legal community on the 8th, the special prosecutor's team submitted a letter to the Supreme Court on this day, urging a speedy decision on the reappeal case related to judicial recusal.

The request included content to the effect that the trial is being prolonged as the Supreme Court has not made a decision for several months, and that the end of the special prosecution team's activities will inevitably be delayed accordingly.

It also included the need for a speedy decision, as the longer the trial is delayed, the more likely it is that the memories of relevant witnesses will become blurred, which will significantly impede the discovery of the substantive truth.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Choi was indicted along with former Prime Minister Han Deok-soo and others on charges of failing to appoint candidates for Constitutional Court judges recommended by the National Assembly following the impeachment of former President Yoon Seok-yeol.

He was also charged with perjury in the first trial of former Prime Minister Han on charges of rebellion.

However, in relation to the charge of perjury, former Deputy Prime Minister Choi's side applied for a judge's recusal in February, saying that it is difficult to expect a fair trial as the 33rd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Judge Lee Jin-gwan) heard the first trial of the former Prime Minister Han's rebellion case.

The application for recusal was dismissed in both the first trial and the appellate trial, but former Deputy Prime Minister Choi appealed again, and the hearing has been ongoing at the Supreme Court for over four months since last May.

This is in contrast to the average criminal case exclusion, avoidance, and avoidance case processing, which takes about 1 to 2 months.

According to data submitted by the Supreme Court Office of Court Administration to the office of Park Eun-jung, a member of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and the office of National Assembly member Park Eun-jung of the Democratic Party of Korea, the average processing time of the Supreme Court for requests for exclusion, avoidance, and avoidance of criminal cases was 1.1 months in the first half of this year and 1.7 months last year.

During the same period, the average processing time for both district courts and high courts was 1.5 months or less.

Meanwhile, the 33rd Department of Criminal Justice separated the defense of former Deputy Prime Minister Choi's case after the judge's application for recusal, and the hearing on former Deputy Prime Minister Choi has been suspended for about eight months.

The remaining defendants, including former Prime Minister Han Deok-soo, are scheduled to be sentenced in the first trial on the 26th.