Democratic Party: "Yoon's Detention Cancellation Unrelated to Impeachment Trial... Prosecution Must Appeal"

"What Does It Mean to Release the Ringleader of a Rebellion?" Criticism Arises

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung is attending an emergency party meeting held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 7th, when the release of President Yoon Seok-yeol was announced. Photo by Yonhap News

The Democratic Party of Korea stated on the 7th regarding the court's decision to cancel the arrest of President Yoon Seok-yeol, "What does it mean to release the ringleader of a rebellion?" and "The prosecution must immediately file an appeal."

Han Min-soo, spokesperson for the Democratic Party, said after an emergency Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly that day, "This court decision is completely unrelated to and will not affect the Constitutional Court's impeachment trial of President Yoon Seok-yeol."

Park Kyun-taek, a lawmaker from the same party, explained, "(The decision to cancel President Yoon's arrest) is a procedural issue arising from differences in interpretation between the prosecution and the court regarding the calculation of the detention period," and "It is unrelated to whether there are grounds for President Yoon's impeachment."

Regarding the criticism of the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit (Gongsoocheo) for inadequate investigation after requesting President Yoon's arrest warrant, Park said, "The court did not point out any problems or acknowledge faults with Gongsoocheo," and "Fundamentally, this is an issue of interpretation concerning detention, not a matter to blame Gongsoocheo for."

On the same day, the 25th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Ji Gwi-yeon) accepted President Yoon's request to cancel the arrest.

The court accepted the arguments from President Yoon's side, ruling that it is reasonable to calculate the detention period in actual hours rather than days, and it is difficult to consider the period during which investigation-related documents were with the court for the detention review as part of the detention period.

Accordingly, the court's judgment is that President Yoon should be considered to have been indicted after the expiration of the detention period.

Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Yong-woo said, "Both issues have no precedent, so it seems the court made a careful judgment," and "Since there is no precedent, whether this judgment is appropriate should be properly reviewed through an appeal by the prosecution."

If the prosecution does not file an appeal, President Yoon is expected to be released from Seoul Detention Center and move to the official residence in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.