Anchor: A Seoul court is reviewing a pretrial detention warrant request for former President Yoon Suk Yeol by a special counsel investigating the December 3 martial law case. A decision on the warrant may come as early as late Wednesday.
Our Choi You Sun has more.

Report: Former President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared at the Seoul Central District Court for his pretrial detention warrant hearing at around 2:20 p.m. Wednesday, where he is expected to argue that the charges against him were invalid.

Upon his arrival at the courthouse, he entered without responding to reporters’ questions.

The hearing comes about four months after a court canceled his previous detention order related to the same case.

Yoon will be transferred to the Seoul Detention Center after the hearing to await a decision by the court, which will likely come late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Following two rounds of questioning with the former president, the special team, led by Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok, charged Yoon with abuse of power, obstruction of the exercise of rights, falsification of public documents, and obstruction of special public duty.

Investigators suspect Yoon violated Cabinet members’ rights by summoning only a select group of ministers for a meeting to secure a quorum ahead of declaring martial law.

He is also accused of attempting to legitimize the decree by fabricating an official document and having then-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo sign it, as well as abusing his power by having his spokesperson distribute a false press guidance to foreign media.

Additional allegations include obstructing law enforcement’s attempt to arrest him over the martial law incident in January and ordering the Presidential Security Service to visibly carry firearms during the arrest attempt.

Prosecutors further suspect that Yoon instructed the Presidential Security Service to delete data from secure phones used by military commanders involved in the incident ahead of an insurrection probe.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.