Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol waves to his supporters as he comes out of a detention center in Uiwang, South Korea, March 8, 2025. /VCG
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol waves to his supporters as he comes out of a detention center in Uiwang, South Korea, March 8, 2025. /VCG
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was released Saturday as the prosecution decided not to appeal against a court's release approval.
Yoon got off a black vehicle and walked out of the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, about 20 kilometers south of Seoul, waving hands and bowing to his supporters who were standing along the road, TV footage showed.
After arriving at the presidential residence in central Seoul, he got off the vehicle again to shake hands with his supporters.
Yoon said in a statement that he appreciated the court's determination, people's support despite cold weather and the leadership of the ruling People Power Party.
The Seoul Central District Court approved the release of the arrested president on Friday, accepting Yoon's request to cancel his detention that was made by his legal team on February 4.
His lawyers said the court decision "confirmed that the president's detainment was problematic in both procedural and substantive aspects," calling the ruling the "beginning of a journey to restore rule of law."
On Saturday, some 55,000 Yoon supporters rallied in Seoul's main districts, while 32,500 people demonstrated against him near the Constitutional Court, Yonhap news agency reported, citing unofficial police estimates.
Yoon was apprehended in the presidential office on January 15 and was indicted under detention on January 26 as a suspected ringleader of insurrection, becoming the country's first sitting president to be arrested and prosecuted.
Prosecutors brought the accusation against Yoon at 6:52 p.m. local time on January 26, but the Seoul Central District Court said Yoon's arrest period expired at 9:07 a.m. local time on the same day.
The prosecution's special investigative unit in charge of Yoon's insurrection case sought to appeal against the court's Friday ruling, but the country's prosecutor general ordered the unit to follow the court's decision, according to local media outlets.
Yoon declared an emergency martial law on the night of December 3 last year, but it was revoked by the opposition-led National Assembly hours later.
A motion to impeach Yoon was passed in the National Assembly on December 14, and since then the constitutional court has held 11 hearings on Yoon's impeachment, with its final verdict widely expected to be delivered next week.
(With input from agencies)