Seoul: Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has been remanded in custody after a court issued an arrest warrant in a criminal case stemming from the declaration of martial law late last year.
According to Thai News Agency, the Seoul Central District Court approved an arrest warrant for Yoon at the request of the special prosecutor in the criminal case regarding the declaration of martial law on December 3, 2024. This decision led to Yoon being re-arrested and sent back to detention for the second time. The court cited concerns that Yoon might seek to destroy evidence during the trial as the reason for granting the warrant.
Yoon was taken to Uiwang Detention Center, located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Seoul, after having previously spent 52 days there earlier this year. He was released in March to face trial after the Constitutional Court’s ruling in April to remove him from office as president.
Yoon, 64, now returns to a 10-square-meter room in the detention center, where he must adapt to sleeping on a rolled-up mattress without air conditioning. This is a stark contrast to his previous life in a 164-square-meter, 7.5-billion-won (US$5.7 million) luxury Seoul apartment, which he shared with his wife and 11 pets.
The criminal prosecutors had sought an arrest warrant for Yoon on five counts. These include allegedly violating the rights of the cabinet by convening a meeting of select ministers shortly before martial law was declared and supposedly fabricating a false martial law declaration to legitimize himself. This declaration was allegedly signed by then-Prime Minister Han Deok-soo and Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
Other charges against Yoon include ordering the president’s foreign media spokesperson to spread false information to distort his intention to undermine constitutional order, directing the presidential security agency to obstruct investigators from taking him into custody earlier in January, and ordering the deletion of call logs from the phones of three military commanders.
Yoon and his lawyers deny all charges. If convicted of treason, he faces the possibility of the death penalty or life imprisonment.