Special Investigation Team on Rebellion, to Intensify Investigation into Foreign Exchange Charges against Yoon

[Financial News] The special investigation team on rebellion and foreign exchange (Cho Eun-seok Special Prosecutor) is now expected to focus on foreign exchange charges against former President Yoon Seok-yeol. It is known that the special investigation team has determined that further investigation is meaningless as former President Yoon shows a consistent refusal to be investigated.
According to the legal community on the 20th, the special investigation team on rebellion additionally indicted former President Yoon on the 19th for charges of abuse of authority under the Criminal Act and obstruction of rights under the Criminal Act. This is the third indictment against former President Yoon by the investigation agency following the indictment by the Special Investigation Headquarters for Martial Law (Park Se-hyun, Seoul High Prosecutor) in January and May for charges of being the leader of rebellion and abuse of authority under the Criminal Act.
The special investigation team applied charges against former President Yoon for illegally convening the 'Emergency Martial Law Cabinet Meeting' on December 3 last year and obstructing the exercise of voting rights by cabinet members. They also applied charges for creating and discarding false official documents to conceal procedural defects despite proclaiming martial law without official documents.
The special investigation team initially continued the investigation in the direction of extending the detention period for former President Yoon. However, after experiencing a series of 'refusal to be investigated' by former President Yoon, they determined that extending the detention warrant was not beneficial.
After being re-detained, former President Yoon refused repeated requests to appear by the special investigation team, citing health reasons. The special investigation team attempted to forcibly bring former President Yoon three times, but all attempts failed as he refused.
The special investigation team, considering the controversy related to the 'detention period calculation' which became a pretext for the cancellation of detention for former President Yoon in March, is analyzed to have expedited the indictment date as much as possible.
The Criminal Procedure Act stipulates that the period from the time the court receives investigation-related documents and evidence due to a request for detention review until they are returned to the prosecution after a decision is not included in the detention period. The prosecution has practically calculated 'time' as 'day'.
However, the Seoul Central District Court accepted the request for cancellation of detention by former President Yoon in March, stating that 'time' in the Criminal Procedure Act should be calculated as 'hour', not 'day'.
The special investigation team is now expected to intensify the investigation into foreign exchange charges against former President Yoon. Special Prosecutor Park Ji-young said in a media briefing on the 19th, "While conducting foreign exchange-related investigations, we will request an appearance, and if he does not comply, we will have no choice but to conduct a forced investigation by obtaining an arrest warrant."
The special investigation team suspects that former President Yoon instructed the Drone Operations Command to prepare for the deployment of drones to Pyongyang, bypassing the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October-November last year, or attempted to provoke an attack from North Korea to justify the proclamation of martial law.
The special investigation team conducted investigations by summoning military officials to the Seoul High Prosecutor's Office, where the special investigation team office is located. They are also analyzing the seized materials obtained from the search and seizure conducted on the 14th at 24 places, including the Ministry of National Defense. Additionally, they applied for an arrest warrant for Kim Yong-dae, Commander of the Drone Operations Command, on this day. 


kyu0705@fnnews.com Dong-kyu Kim Reporter