Former President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office on Saturday after being questioned by the special counsel over his martial law declaration. (Yonhap)
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office on Saturday after being questioned by the special counsel over his martial law declaration. (Yonhap)

The special counsel investigating former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law declaration applied for a warrant to detain him Sunday.

The special counsel team — led by Cho Eun-suk — cited the need for additional questioning on allegations of abuse of power, special obstruction of public duty and preparation of false public document charges.

During a press briefing, Assistant Special Prosecutor Park Ji-young said, “The special counsel filed a request for a detention warrant for former President Yoon with the Seoul Central District Court at 5:20 p.m. today.”

The special counsel team did not specify the details and reasons for its decision.

However, Park explained that allegations of treason were not included in the warrant request, as the matter is still under investigation and substantial materials are remained for investigation.

“As a detention hearing must be held in court, it is not appropriate to comment at this stage,” Park said. “We plan to fully explain our case during the court proceedings.”

The allegation that Yoon ordered the deployment of a military drone into Pyongyang via the Army’s drone operations command — purportedly to justify declaring martial law — was not included in the detention warrant.

Park explained “The investigation into that charge is still ongoing, and a substantial amount of work remains, so it was not included in the list of criminal charges.”

The decision was made 18 days after the special counsel team officially launched its probe against Yoon on June 18. Yoon was questioned twice by the special counsel, on June 28 and July 5, for a total of nearly 30 hours.

Meanwhile, Yoon’s legal representative urged that no basis to allege a crime has been established.

“We have thoroughly explained the allegations throughout the investigation. The special prosecutor has presented no objective evidence during the investigation, and even based on the statements of those involved, the elements of a crime are not met,” Yoon’s attorney told the reporters via text message Sunday.

"We will demonstrate in court that the special prosecutor's request for an arrest warrant is excessive and unwarranted."


sj_lee@heraldcorp.com