SEOUL — South Korean prosecutors Thursday demanded an appeals court uphold a death sentence on former President Chun Doo Hwan for staging a 1979 coup and ordering a massacre to quell resistance.
Prosecutors also called on the court to extend to life in prison a 22 1/2-year jail sentence imposed on former President Roh Tae Woo in August.
At the appeals court, an angry judge dismissed as a witness a third former president, Choi Kyu Hah, an ailing recluse who had refused to answer prosecution questions after being forced to attend.
Choi, 77, caretaker head of state for 10 turbulent months between the assassination of President Park Chung Hee in October 1979 and Chun's grab for power, holds many of the secrets of the dramatic events surrounding the coup but has stubbornly ignored demands to testify.
