Ex-top court chief questioned again

By Kang Seung-woo

Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae was summoned for another questioning by prosecutors, Monday, over a massive judiciary power abuse scandal.

Yang Sung-tae

According to the prosecution, Yang appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office at 9:30 a.m.

It was the second time in a week after the 70-year-old was questioned, Friday, becoming the first former top court chief in history to face a prosecution questioning as a criminal suspect, in which he was interrogated for more than 14 hours.

Yang is facing allegations of using high-profile trials as bargaining chips in dealings with the Park Geun-hye administration for the establishment of a new court of appeals.

During the second investigation, investigators quizzed him over various allegations including his interference in the case about dissolution of the leftist Unified Progressive Party, the top court's illegal collection of secret documents of the Constitutional Court and the attempt to cover up a former senior judge's corruption, among other cases.

The prosecution is expected to request an arrest warrant for Yang as early as this week, given that they wrapped up questioning on high-level suspicions against him in the first interrogation such as the delay of a court ruling on forced wartime laborers' compensation suits against Japanese firms and unfair treatment against judges on a “blacklist” with differing political views.

In the first questioning, Yang mostly said he did not remember facts or situations about the allegations or claimed some were done by working-level court officials not upon his order. Regarding the blacklist allegation, Yang said he exercised his due right to manage and evaluate judges as a top court chief and thus it was not an abuse of power.