A South Korean court has once again denied prosecutors’ request to extend the detention of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, as reported by Yonhap news agency on Saturday. The decision follows a similar rejection on Friday.
The Seoul Central District Court dismissed the request for a detention extension on Saturday, according to a brief statement from the prosecutors’ office. This follows a ruling by the same court the previous day, where the judge stated that there were “insufficient grounds” to approve the extension.
Prosecutors had planned to keep Yoon in custody until February 6 for further questioning before formally indicting him, but now those plans will need to be adjusted.
Yoon was arrested last week on charges of insurrection, making him the first sitting South Korean president to be detained during a criminal investigation. His December 3 martial law decree lasted only six hours before being voted down by lawmakers, but it was enough to spark South Korea’s worst political crisis in decades.
With the court rejecting the detention extension, legal experts suggest that prosecutors must now act quickly to formally indict Yoon in order to keep him behind bars. “With the court’s rejection of the extension, prosecutors must now work quickly to formally indict Yoon to keep him behind bars,” said Yoo Jung-hoon, an attorney and political commentator, to AFP.
Yoon has refused to cooperate with the criminal investigation, with his legal team arguing that the investigators lack legal authority to detain him.
The impeached president is also facing a separate hearing in the Constitutional Court. If the court upholds his impeachment, Yoon would officially be removed from office, and an election would need to be held within 60 days.
