The ruling Democratic Party has revised and submitted its bill to establish a special tribunal to examine last year’s martial law episode and bring those responsible to justice. 

The party made the decision at a lawmakers’ meeting at the National Assembly on Monday just before submitting the bill to the parliament’s plenary session.

Party spokesperson Park Soo-hyun said the revised bill completely excluded Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de from any role in the tribunal.

Under the revised bill, the authority to select judges for the special tribunal would rest with a judges’ council rather than the Supreme Court.

Park explained that the judges’ council would set standards for the tribunal, such as the number of special courts and judges, after which the court’s case allocation committee would assign trial duties based on those standards, and the judges’ council would deliberate on and approve the appointment of each judge. 

The ruling party plans to put the bill to a vote on Tuesday.