A TOP South Korean court today ordered impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol to be released from jail, more than a month after he was arrested and indicted over his imposition of martial law.
The decision by the Seoul Central District Court would allow Mr Yoon to stand trial while not being physically detained.
The hearings in his separate impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court concluded in late February and the court is expected to rule soon on whether to formally remove him from office or reinstate him.
The Seoul Central District Court said it accepted Mr Yoon’s request to be released from jail because the legal period of his formal arrest expired before he was indicted in late January.
The court said the investigative agency that detained Mr Yoon before his formal arrest didn’t have legal rights to investigate the criminal rebellion charges.
President Yoon’s defence team welcomed the court’s decision and urged prosecutors to release him immediately.
Investigators have alleged that the martial law decree amounted to rebellion. If he’s convicted of that offence, he would face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Mr Yoon’s martial law decree, which involved the dispatch of troops and police forces to the National Assembly, lasted only six hours as enough lawmakers managed to get into an assembly hall to vote to overturn it unanimously.
President Yoon later argued his decree was only meant to inform the people of the danger of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, which undermined his agenda and impeached top officials.
But some top military and police officers have told Constitutional Court hearings or investigators that President Yoon ordered them to drag out lawmakers to obstruct a vote on his decree, or detain politicians.
If the Constitutional Court upholds President Yoon’s impeachment, he will be officially thrown out of office and a national election will be held to choose his successor within two months.