Special Prosecutor Indicts Yoon for 'Obstructing Cabinet Meeting Resolution'... Detention Period Until Next Year

[Financial News] The Special Prosecutor's team for rebellion and foreign affairs (Cho Eun-seok, Special Prosecutor) has additionally indicted former President Yoon Seok-yeol.
Park Ji-young, the special prosecutor for rebellion, announced on the 19th that former President Yoon was additionally brought to trial on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of rights. Former President Yoon, who is detained on charges of rebellion, is accused of obstructing the voting rights of cabinet members at the cabinet meeting before the emergency martial law declaration on December 3, obstructing the execution of the arrest warrant by the High-ranking Officials Crime Investigation Office (Gongsoocho), ordering the deletion of classified phone information, and falsely drafting the martial law declaration document. However, the foreign exchange charges of deploying military drones to Pyongyang to build a justification for martial law were not indicted this time, and the investigation will continue.
Park, the special prosecutor, stated, "Our constitution provides mechanisms for checks and balances regarding the president's declaration of martial law," and "it must go through prior cabinet meeting deliberations and be carried out by documents signed by the Prime Minister and related cabinet members."
He continued, "Nevertheless, former President Yoon only notified some cabinet members, infringing on the constitutional rights of those who did not receive the notification to deliberate and vote in the cabinet meeting," and "after the lifting of martial law, he drafted and discarded false official documents as if the martial law was carried out by documents signed by the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defense. Former President Yoon neutralized the prior control mechanisms provided by the constitution for the president's declaration of martial law."
Regarding the reason for the indictment, Park, the special prosecutor, explained, "Additional investigations and evidence collection have been sufficiently conducted with reference persons, and even if the detention period is extended, it is difficult to ensure effective investigation of former President Yoon, so the prosecution was initiated."
The rebellion special prosecutor successfully detained former President Yoon on the 10th but plans to continue the investigation despite the difficulties of refusing two summons investigations and forced detention.
Under the Criminal Procedure Act, the detention period is a maximum of 20 days. However, if indicted while detained, each trial can extend the detention by six months, allowing it to be maintained until January next year. The special prosecutor plans to focus on proving charges such as foreign exchange while securing former President Yoon's custody safely and conducting summons investigations simultaneously with the trial.
The special prosecutor also announced a forced investigation against former President Yoon, who continues to refuse summons investigations and forced detention.
Park, the special prosecutor, warned, "Summons investigations are naturally necessary in the foreign exchange-related investigation," and "if he refuses the request for dispatch, we will have no choice but to issue an arrest warrant and conduct a forced investigation." If former President Yoon continues to refuse summons investigations, the special prosecutor's team plans to consider it in the sentencing during future trials.
However, the rebellion special prosecutor only brought former President Yoon to trial regarding the related charges. The investigation will continue for related individuals such as former Prime Minister Han Deok-soo, former Presidential Office Chief of Staff Kang Yi-gu, and former Security Office Deputy Director Kim Seong-hoon, and the decision on whether to indict them will be made later.



theknight@fnnews.com Jung Kyung-soo Choi Eun-sol Reporter