S. Korea's court issues warrant to detain ex-president Yoon

SEOUL -- South Korea's court issued a warrant to detain former president Yoon Suk-yeol, sought by special counsel investigating Yoon's short-lived martial law imposition, the special counsel team's spokesperson said early Thursday.

The Seoul Central District Court accepted the issuance request from Cho Eun-suk, independent counsel leading the investigation into Yoon's insurrection and other charges, saying Yoon was feared to destroy evidence.

The charges specified in the warrant included the obstruction of justice, abuse of power and writing a bogus official document, the spokesperson noted.

He is also accused of violating the rights of cabinet members by excluding most of them from a key meeting ahead of his Dec 3 martial law declaration, according to local media reports.

Additional charges include ordering the dissemination of false statements to foreign media, instructing aides to obstruct his arrest in January, and ordering the deletion of call records from secure phones, reports said.

The special counsel team, which launched its investigation on June 18, sought the detention warrant to keep Yoon in custody for an extended period of time, or at least 20 days.

A separate warrant to arrest Yoon for up to 48 hours was sought last month, but it was dismissed by the Seoul court as Yoon showed his willingness to be questioned.

Yoon rejected the third police call on June 19 to appear for questioning over his charges of ordering the presidential security service to block the attempt in January to arrest him and to delete information on security phones offered to three military commanders.

Yoon was apprehended in presidential office on Jan. 15 and was indicted under detention on Jan. 26 as a suspected ringleader of insurrection, but he was released on March 8 as prosecutors decided not to appeal against the court's release approval.

The constitutional court upheld a motion to impeach Yoon on April 4 over his botched martial law bid last December, officially removing him from office.