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.<br />The case has to do with the deadly military crackdown on protestors in that city in 1980.<br />Our Cha Sang-mi is outside his house.<br />Sang-mi,... tell us what you saw there this morning..<br /> <br />Morning, Mark, I am standing in front of former president Chun Doo-hwan's house in Seoul's Yeonhui-dong district.<br />He left his house as planned at around 8:30 AM to attend a libel case hearing at the Gwangju District Court.<br />When he left,... this street was packed with reporters and camera crews.<br />Some 350 security and personnel were mobilized for any emergency situation, but his departure passed without incident.<br />The former president was accompanied by two teams of detectives, following the car which carried his wife Rhee Soon-ja, Chun and his lawyer.<br />Gwangju is located some 330 kilometers south of Seoul,... so he's expected to arrive at the court at around 1:30 PM.<br />The hearing begins at 2:30.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />He refused to attend for the first time back in August of last year, citing issues caused by Alzheimer's Disease.<br /><br />So Sang-mi, give us some context of Chun's case <br /><br />Sure, Mark, Chun served as president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988.<br />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.<br />Chun was sentenced to death in 1996, but was pardoned and released from custody the following year by the Kim Young-sam administration.<br />He was indicted without detention in May 2018 on charges that his memoirs, published in 2017, disgraced the late activist priest Cho Chul-hyun.<br />Cho insisted he witnessed the military firing on citizens during the bloody crackdown of Gwangju.<br />Chun denied the priest's claim in his memoirs, calling Cho "Satan wearing a mask" and a "liar." <br />Later, a relative of priest Cho filed a libel suit against him. <br />If convicted, Chun could face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to five-thousand U.S. dollars.<br />Mark.<br /><br />Thank you, Sang-mi, for the update. <br />
