Court Issues Additional Detention Warrant for Yoon Suk Yeol: "Concerns Over Destruction of Evidence"

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is suspected of orchestrating the infiltration of a drone into Pyongyang to create a pretext for declaring martial law, has been additionally detained by the court.

Yonhap News

According to the Special Prosecutor's Office for Insurrection and Foreign Affairs led by Cho Eunseok and the court, the 36th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jeongyeop) on January 2 issued a detention warrant for former President Yoon, who was additionally indicted on charges including general acts of benefiting the enemy and abuse of authority by interfering with the exercise of rights.

The court cited concerns about the destruction of evidence as the reason for the additional detention.

As a result of the court's decision, former President Yoon, whose previous detention was scheduled to expire on the 18th, can now be held for up to another six months. Since December 2024, former President Yoon has been detained three times on different charges.

Under the Criminal Procedure Act, the maximum detention period at the first trial is six months, but if the necessity of detention is recognized due to indictments for other cases or charges, the court may issue an additional warrant after review.

Former President Yoon is accused of conspiring with former Defense Minister Kim Yonghyun and former Defense Security Command Chief Yeo Inhyeong to infiltrate a drone into Pyongyang in order to create military tension between the two Koreas as a pretext for declaring martial law.

On January 26 last year, former President Yoon was indicted and detained by the prosecution on charges of being the ringleader of an insurrection, but was released on March 8 following a court decision to cancel his detention. Since then, he has been standing trial in detention on charges brought by the special prosecutor's team, including obstructing the execution of an arrest warrant by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials in July last year.