A special counsel team indicted former President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday on charges of abuse of authority over his short-lived imposition of martial law.
It marks Yoon's third indictment with detention following previous ones in January and in March related to his martial law declaration on Dec. 3 and other power abuse charges.
According to the team led by special counsel Cho Eun-suk, Yoon is accused of violating the rights of Cabinet members during the martial law deliberation process, retroactively drafting the martial law declaration, ordering the deletion of records from encrypted phones and other offenses.
The special counsel pointed to a Cabinet meeting held shortly before the martial law declaration on Dec. 3, where Yoon summoned select members, including then Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
"Yoon notified only a few Cabinet members to convene, and this infringed on the constitutional rights of Cabinet members to deliberate and vote," assistant special counsel Park Ji-young said during a briefing. "This also nullified the Constitution's pre-control system against the president's imposition of martial law."
Yoon also allegedly doctored the martial law declaration in a way that made it appear as though Han and Kim had signed it after the National Assembly approved the lifting of the decree, and then ordered the document to be discarded.
The treason charge, however, was not included in the indictment, as the team is still reviewing it, she added.
The indictment came after the team attempted to question Yoon multiple times following his second detention last week, but Yoon declined to appear.
Earlier this week, Yoon filed a petition to review the legality of his detention, less than a week after he was placed under arrest at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, just south of the capital. A Seoul court dismissed his request.
Instead of seeking further in-person questioning or extending his arrest period, the special counsel opted to proceed with the indictment.
"After the court's dismissal, we concluded we had secured sufficient evidence through the questioning of other relevant figures," Park said. "Even if the arrest period had been extended, it would have been difficult to ensure a more effective investigation of Yoon." (Yonhap)
