South Korea prosecutors file request to detain ex-president Yoon

SEOUL - South Korean special prosecutors filed a new request on July 6 to detain former president Yoon Suk Yeol, a day after he appeared before them for questioning over his declaration of martial law last year.

Yoon, who is facing a criminal trial on insurrection charges over the

martial law declaration in December

, was arrested in January after resisting authorities trying to take him into custody, but was released after 52 days on technical grounds.

“(The) detention request is related to allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of justice,” the special prosecutors investigating the declaration said in a statement.

The spokesperson for the special prosecutors declined to elaborate when asked why the detention request was submitted, saying they would explain it in court proceedings to decide on whether it should be granted.

Yoon’s lawyers said in a statement that the special prosecutors had not provided credible evidence for the charges they were seeking, and his legal team would “explain in court that the request for an arrest warrant is unreasonable”.

Yoon has been accused of mobilising presidential guards to stop the authorities from arresting him in January, but the court has previously dismissed the request for an arrest warrant after Yoon had initially refused to appear for questioning. On July 5, he had been summoned for hours of questioning.

He was

ousted in April

by the Constitutional Court, which upheld his impeachment by Parliament for a martial law bid that shocked a country that had prided itself on becoming a thriving democracy after overcoming military dictatorship in the 1980s.

The Dec 3 decree was lifted about six hours after it was announced when lawmakers, who had been forced to scale the walls of the assembly building to make it through a ring of security forces, voted the decree down.

The former president is fighting the charges against him that include masterminding insurrection, which is punishable by death or life in prison. He rejects the allegations.

The special prosecutor was appointed just days after liberal President Lee Jae Myung took office on June 4, following his victory in a snap election called after Yoon’s ouster, and leads a team of more than 200 lawyers and investigators. REUTERS