Former Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo testified at President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial that he considered the president’s martial law decree to be legitimate when it was issued December 3.

At the fifth hearing of Yoon’s trial on Tuesday, Lee said there was no room to doubt the legality or constitutionality of the decree, which was declared by the prosecutor-turned-president, whom he considered to be an expert in the law.

Lee said as a soldier, he understood the president’s address to the public as a strategic guideline and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun’s order to mobilize at the National Assembly as a strategic command.

The former commander, meanwhile, refused to answer most questions from both legal teams, one representing Yoon and one representing the Assembly, citing restrictions in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Act.

Lee stayed silent when asked whether Yoon ordered each group of four soldiers to remove one lawmaker from the parliament. 

But he said no when asked if either Yoon or Kim had given orders to arrest key political figures or block the passage of the motion to revoke martial law.

Lee also said he had notified Yoon during a phone conversation that the troops were sent to parliament unarmed and that they were having difficulty entering the Assembly.