Key Points
Military leaders deny active participation in martial law scheme
Commanders claim they opposed the president's orders
Legal proceedings reveal complex chain of military command
Allegations of potential constitutional overreach
Lt. Gen. Yeo In-hyung made the remarks during a preparatory hearing at a court-martial in central Seoul regarding his indictment in late December for his alleged role in plotting the December 3 martial law declaration by Yoon, reports Yonhap news agency.
Yeo is accused of deploying troops to the National Assembly to detain lawmakers and to the National Election Commission's offices to seize its servers during the brief martial law period.
"I spoke directly against martial law to the president and the (defence) minister several times," Yeo said. "Despite my opposition, I carried out the commander-in-chief's public and explicit order for emergency martial law as a soldier."
Yeo argued that there was not enough time to assess the legality of martial law, but still acknowledged his faults as the commander in charge of the troops, asking the court for leniency for his staff and unit personnel.
Military prosecutors, however, rejected Yeo's claims, arguing that he had ample time to assess its legality as he was aware of the martial law plan in advance through Yoon and former Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
Separately, a lawyer for Maj. Gen. Moon Sang-ho, former commander of the Defence Intelligence Command who was also accused in the martial law plot, claimed his innocence in the martial law operations at the same court on Tuesday.
Moon is accused of deploying troops to the National Election Commission's office in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, to allegedly seize its servers and detain election officials during the martial law period.
The legal representative argued during a preparatory hearing that Moon acted on "legitimate" orders at the time, rejecting the allegations against him.
