Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae is set to appear for questioning over his alleged role in a power abuse scandal involving former top court officials.

Yang is expected to appear at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office around 9:30 a.m. Friday, making him the first former head of the Supreme Court to ever face prosecutorial questioning as a criminal suspect.  

The 71-year-old former judge led the top court beginning in 2011 and retired in September 2017. The former chief justice is suspected of having sought to use sensitive high-profile trials as bargaining chips in dealings with the Park Geun-hye administration to realize his plan to establish a separate court of appeals.