At dawn on July 10th local time, the Central District Court of Seoul, South Korea, after reviewing the case, approved the arrest application submitted by the Special Investigation Team for Unrest against Yoon Suk-yeol.
A warrant for his arrest was issued.
Yoon Suk-yeol was immediately detained on the spot.
This marks the 124th day since he was released from detention by the court on March 8th this year.
On the evening of July 9th local time, Yoon Suk-yeol concluded his review and left the court.
From the afternoon to the evening of July 9th local time, the Central District Court of Seoul conducted a nearly seven-hour review of the necessity for detention; upon completion of the review, Yoon Suk-yeol was taken to the Seoul Detention Center in Yongbang-gu, Gyeonggi Province, awaiting the court’s verdict.
The court found that Yoon Suk-yeol had “the possibility of destroying evidence”.
After review, the Central District Court of Seoul determined that Yoon Suk-yeol had the “possibility of destroying evidence”, thus issuing an arrest warrant for him.
According to the Special Investigation Team for Unrest, Yoon Suk-yeol made a summary speech of about 20 minutes during the review process on the same day, arguing that his charges were unfounded. The Special Investigation Team prepared 178 presentation slides to prove that Yoon Suk-yeol was inevitably detained due to committing serious crimes undermining the rule of law and judicial order. The Special Investigation Team also submitted an opinion letter of about 300 pages to the court. Yoon Suk-yeol’s legal team also presented 167 presentation slides to refute the suspicions raised by the Special Investigation Team.
It is understood that the Central District Court of Seoul accepted the argument of the Special Investigation Team, believing that Yoon Suk-yeol falsely claimed to have declared a state of emergency through legal procedures but then fabricated documents declaring the state of emergency only after it was lifted. He also instructed the deletion of encryption phone records belonging to co-conspirators in the unrest, which “are essentially equivalent to destroying evidence”.
Furthermore, the court also believes that Yoon Suk-yeol has repeatedly refused to cooperate with investigations without just cause and consistently adopted a non-cooperative attitude during the chaos trial.
Therefore, the claim of “possibility of escape” made by the special prosecutor’s group is reasonable in the case of Yoon Suk-yeol being sentenced to a heavy penalty, and thus an arrest warrant was issued for him.
On the evening of the 9th local time, Yoon Suk-yeol’s vehicle entered the Seoul Detention Center.
Subsequently, Yoon Suk-yeol will continue to undergo investigation under detention and face trial on the “chaos case,” and South Korean investigative authorities may also file additional charges against him.
The special prosecutor’s group will conduct a maximum 20-day investigation of Yoon Suk-yeol.
On the 6th of this month, the special prosecutor’s group in South Korea, which is responsible for investigating emergency martial law incidents, requested the court to issue an arrest warrant for Yoon Suk-yeol on suspicions of abuse of power and other violations.
After Yoon Suk-yeol’s arrest, the special prosecutor’s group will conduct a maximum 20-day investigation of him.
Previously, the special prosecutor’s group stated that Yoon Suk-yeol was suspected of obstructing the execution of special duties, violating the Presidential Guard Law, abuse of power, and forging official documents. Since the internal conflict charges mentioned in the request for arrest warrant had been confirmed by both the prosecution and police investigations,
the investigation is expected to focus on Yoon Suk-yeol’s suspicions of external threats, including creating reasons for declaring martial law, using drones to invade North Korea’s capital Pyongyang, and provoking the North.
Timeline of Yoon Suk-yeol’s Arrests:
On the evening of December 3, 2024, then-South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol issued an emergency martial law order.
On December 14, 2024, the South Korean National Assembly passed a motion to impeach Yoon Suk-yeol, leading to his suspension from office.
On January 15, 2025, the Joint Investigation Division of South Korea executed an arrest warrant for Yoon Suk-yeol. This marked the first arrest of a serving president in South Korean constitutional history.
In the early hours of January 19, 2025, the Western District Court of Seoul approved the detention order for Yoon Suk-yeol.
Yin Siyue became the first president in South Korea’s constitutional history to be detained and investigated while in office.
On January 26, 2025, the Special Investigation Division of the Prosecutor’s Office of South Korea urgently detained Yin Siyue on charges of “suspected internal unrest.” This marked Yin Siyue as the first president in South Korean constitutional history to be prosecuted for his position.
On March 7, 2025, the Seoul Central District Court approved Yin Siyue’s request for the cancellation of his detention. Yin Siyue was released from custody that afternoon and left the Seoul detention center.
On April 4, 2025, the Constitutional Court of South Korea passed a ruling to impeach Yin Siyue. Consequently, Yin Siyue was immediately removed from office as president.
On June 5, 2025, the South Korean National Assembly passed the “Internal Unrest Special Investigation Act” aimed at investigating the truth behind Yin Siyue’s alleged internal unrest. Five days later, President Lee Jae-myung convened a national meeting to review and approve the special investigation act.
On June 24, 2025, the special investigation team applied to the court for the arrest of Yin Siyue, which was denied the following day.
On June 28, 2025, Yin Siyue made his first appearance to accept the special investigation team’s investigation.
On July 5, 2025, Yin Siyue attended the second summons by the special investigation team.
On July 6, 2025, the special investigation team requested the Seoul Central District Court to issue an arrest warrant for Yin Siyue.
On July 9, 2025, the Seoul Central District Court conducted a necessity review of the arrest warrant against Yin Siyue, who attended.
In the early hours of July 10, 2025, the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant against Yin Siyue.