Seoul: A South Korean court on Friday ordered impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol to be released from jail, a move that would allow him to stand trial for his rebellion charge.
Yoon was arrested and indicted in January over his short-lived imposition of martial law late last year.
The hearings in his separate impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court concluded in late February, and that 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 Yoon’s request to be released from jail because the legal period of his formal arrest expired before he was indicted for alleged rebellion in connection with the martial law decree in late January.
The court also cited the need to resolve questions over the legality of the investigations on Yoon. Yoon’s lawyers have accused the investigative agency that detained him before his formal arrest of lacking legal authority to probe rebellion charges. If he’s convicted of that offence, he would face the death penalty or life imprisonment.