Former President Yoon Faces Arrest Hearing Amid Martial Law Allegations

Seoul, Jul 9 (AP) Disgraced former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made a court appearance on Wednesday as proceedings began to evaluate a special prosecutor's request for his arrest. This request follows allegations linked to his brief imposition of martial law this past December.

Yoon was removed from office in April following the Constitutional Court's decision to uphold his impeachment. Earlier, in March, he had been freed from jail when the Seoul Central District Court overturned his January arrest, permitting him to face trial for rebellion while out of custody.

Entering the court in Seoul in a black van alongside his legal team, Yoon chose not to address the media queries directed at him.

The case against Yoon is being pursued by a team of investigators under special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk. The team is looking to add more charges against Yoon related to his authoritarian actions, which allegedly include abuse of power, fabricating official documents, and obstructing official processes.

Cho's investigative team considers Yoon a flight risk or a potential threat to the integrity of evidence. They interrogated him on two occasions before they formally submitted the arrest warrant request to the court on Sunday.

In response, Yoon's defense team criticized the arrest request as being overly severe and lacking substantial evidence. The court is poised to make a decision on the arrest warrant by Wednesday evening or early Thursday.

The former conservative president justified the imposition of martial law on December 3 as an essential action to suppress what he described as his "anti-state" liberal adversaries. Yoon accused them of leveraging their majority in the legislature to derail his political agenda. However, his decree was short-lived, as lawmakers managed to bypass a barricade of heavily armed soldiers at the National Assembly and successfully voted to overturn the measure within hours.

Yoon was impeached by the legislature on December 14 and later indicted on January 26 by public prosecutors, who charged him with orchestrating an attempted rebellion. Prosecutors described his posturing as an illegal endeavor aimed at taking over the legislature and election offices while detaining political opponents. The stated charges carry potential penalties ranging from life imprisonment to the death penalty.

Further allegations against Yoon include his failure to observe legal protocols before enforcing martial law, such as soliciting a formal Cabinet discussion, and claims of illegally utilizing the presidential security forces in a private manner to fend off law enforcement attempts to apprehend him at his home in early January.

His liberal adversary, Lee Jae Myung, who emerged victorious in the June special election to succeed him, endorsed new legislation last month. This law mandates extensive investigations into Yoon's martial law incident along with other criminal allegations concerning his wife and administration.

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