Former President Chun Doo-hwan will appear in court for an appeals hearing on his defamation conviction involving a now-deceased witness to the brutal crackdown of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising.

His appearance is scheduled for next Monday at Gwangju District Court. 

Chun insisted on skipping the hearing but apparently changed his stance after the court warned that the trial would proceed, but that a no-show may be prove disadvantageous.

Speaking to Yonhap News on Tuesday, his legal representative Jung Ju-gyo said the former president will make an appearance at court because they were told it would be difficult to accept materials provided by the defense as evidence in Chun's absence. 

The 90-year-old was indicted in 2018 for allegedly slandering a late activist and Catholic priest for including eyewitness accounts of the brutal crackdown of the Gwangju uprising in his 2017 memoir. Chun is known to have called him a "shameless liar."

The prosecution demanded 18 months in prison while the Gwangju District Court last November handed down an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years.