Chun Doo-hwan to attend libel trial in Gwangju over false accounts in his memoir

One of South Korea's former presidents, , Chun Doo-hwan, has set off to a libel case hearing in the southwestern city of Gwangju from his home in Seoul.
The case has to do with the deadly military crackdown on protestors in that city in 1980.
Our Cha Sang-mi is outside his house.
Sang-mi,... tell us what you saw there this morning..

Morning, Mark, I am standing in front of former president Chun Doo-hwan's house in Seoul's Yeonhui-dong district.
He left his house as planned at around 8:30 AM to attend a libel case hearing at the Gwangju District Court.
When he left,... this street was packed with reporters and camera crews.
Some 350 security and personnel were mobilized for any emergency situation, but his departure passed without incident.
The former president was accompanied by two teams of detectives, following the car which carried his wife Rhee Soon-ja, Chun and his lawyer.
Gwangju is located some 330 kilometers south of Seoul,... so he's expected to arrive at the court at around 1:30 PM.
The hearing begins at 2:30.
There have been pro-Chun protests going on here... some 200 people are holding signs saying "no trial for President Chun Doo-hwan" and shouting it is a "violation of human rights" to open a trial about something that happened 40 years ago.

Today's hearing comes after the Gwangju District Court issued an arrest warrant for Chun, when he refused to show up at court for a second time in January, citing health reasons.
He refused to attend for the first time back in August of last year, citing issues caused by Alzheimer's Disease.

So Sang-mi, give us some context of Chun's case

Sure, Mark, Chun served as president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988.
He took power in a military coup in May 1980, where he ordered troops to fire on student protesters in Gwangju, who were calling for him to step down -- killing around 200.
Chun was sentenced to death in 1996, but was pardoned and released from custody the following year by the Kim Young-sam administration.
He was indicted without detention in May 2018 on charges that his memoirs, published in 2017, disgraced the late activist priest Cho Chul-hyun.
Cho insisted he witnessed the military firing on citizens during the bloody crackdown of Gwangju.
Chun denied the priest's claim in his memoirs, calling Cho "Satan wearing a mask" and a "liar."
Later, a relative of priest Cho filed a libel suit against him.
If convicted, Chun could face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to five-thousand U.S. dollars.
Mark.

Thank you, Sang-mi, for the update.