South Korea’s Constitutional Court today rejected a request by ousted president Yun Seok-yeol to postpone his impeachment hearing scheduled for later today.

The second formal hearing of the impeachment trial was due to take place at 2pm, but Yun’s lawyer requested the postponement the day before, citing his detention and interrogation by investigators in the short-lived martial law case early last month.

Yonhap news agency noted that under the law, the court can proceed with the second hearing with or without the defendant, and Yoon was absent from Tuesday’s first hearing, which ended after four minutes.

Yoon is accused of rioting with intent to subvert the constitution after declaring martial law on 3 December, sending armed martial law troops to the National Assembly (parliament) to prevent lawmakers from voting on a motion to reject his martial law declaration, sending armed martial law troops to the offices of the election watchdog to investigate suspected election fraud, and attempting to detain senior politicians without issuing arrest warrants.