SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- A former South Korean top court chief on Wednesday appeared in a court for a hearing which will determine whether to detain him before sentencing over his alleged involvement in a judicial power abuse scandal.
Yang Sung-tae, 71, who led the Supreme Court from 2011 to September 2017, appeared at the Seoul Central District Court to attend the hearing, local TV footage showed.
Prosecutors sought an arrest warrant for Yang last Friday on charges of over 40 counts, including abuse of power.
The disgraced Yang became the first former top court chief in the country's history to be questioned as a criminal suspect before a court judge to determine whether to arrest him.
Yang was accused of masterminding a so-called "trial dealings," in which the Supreme Court ruled in politically and diplomatically sensitive trials in favor of the policy direction of former President Park Geun-hye who was removed from office in 2017.
In exchange for it, Yang allegedly sought to win Park's approval for the establishment of a separate court of appeals, known to have been a long dream of Yang.
Park Byong-dae, 62, who served as chief of the top court's administrative affairs body for two years through February 2016, also appeared at the Seoul court to attend a hearing that will decide whether he is required to be arrested.
The former top court justice was charged with having engaged in the trial dealings. A Seoul court rejected an arrest warrant over him in December last year, but the prosecution office sought it again.
Lim Jong-hun, a former deputy head of the Supreme Court's administrative body under Yang's judiciary branch, was put under custody and indicted in November last year over his involvement in the judicial power abuse scandal.
