A Seoul court will decide as early as Tuesday afternoon whether to issue a pretrial detention warrant for the driver of the car that crashed into pedestrians near Seoul City Hall early this month, killing nine people and injuring five others.

The Seoul Central District Court began deliberating on the case regarding the 68-year-old driver, identified by his surname Cha, from Tuesday morning. 

Appearing at the court, Cha apologized to the victims and their families. 

When asked to comment on the grounds of his claims that he had experienced sudden unintended acceleration while driving, Cha only replied that he was sorry. 

The National Forensic Service concluded that there is a strong possibility that a fault by the driver led to the accident, but Cha has maintained that vehicle defect was the cause of the accident.