South Korean court approves arrest of ex-President Yoon over martial law case

A South Korean court has approved the arrest of former President Yoon Suk Yeol in connection with his brief imposition of martial law last December, siding with a special prosecutor’s claim that Yoon could destroy evidence.

Yoon, who was removed from office in April following his impeachment by the Constitutional Court, is being sent back to a detention center near Seoul just four months after his release. He was previously detained in January but freed in March after the Seoul Central District Court allowed him to stand trial without custody.

Special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk is now pursuing additional charges against Yoon, including abuse of power, falsification of official documents, and obstruction of official duties.

Yoon’s legal team criticised the arrest request as excessive and lacking in evidence.

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Yoon appeared in court on Wednesday but declined to answer questions. After a seven-hour hearing, he was taken into custody to await the court’s ruling, which ultimately granted the arrest.

Cho’s team said they view Yoon as a potential threat to destroy evidence. They questioned him twice before submitting a request for his arrest warrant to the court on Sunday.

The former conservative leader described his martial law imposition on Dec. 3 as a necessary step to quash his “anti-state” liberal opponents, accusing them of using their legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. But Yoon’s decree lasted only hours, after a quorum of lawmakers broke through a blockade of heavily armed soldiers at the National Assembly and voted to lift the measure.

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Yoon was impeached by lawmakers Dec. 14 and indicted Jan. 26 by public prosecutors who accused him of masterminding an attempted rebellion, describing his power grab as an illegal attempt to seize the legislature and election offices and detain political opponents.

The charges are punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Yoon also faces accusations of enforcing martial law without following required legal procedure, such as deliberation by a formal Cabinet meeting, and of unlawfully deploying the presidential security forces like a private army to block an initial attempt by law enforcement to detain him at his residence in early January.

His liberal rival, Lee Jae Myung, who won the June snap election to replace him, last month approved legislation to launch sweeping special investigations into Yoon’s martial law debacle and other criminal allegations involving his wife and administration.

With inputs from agencies