SEOUL – Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been accused of instructing his security detail to display firearms in an attempt to intimidate investigators trying to detain him earlier this year, according to a report by Yonhap News on Monday.
The allegations are detailed in a 66-page court document submitted Sunday by a special counsel probing Yoon’s controversial imposition of martial law on December 3. The document claims that on January 11—just days before his arrest—Yoon directed senior officials of the Presidential Security Service to carry firearms, allegedly telling them that police investigators would be “afraid” of armed guards.
Yoon’s legal team has rejected the accusations, calling the detention warrant illegal and politically motivated.
Yoon was removed from office in April after the Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that his martial law declaration violated the South Korean constitution. He had been arrested in January on charges of abuse of power and leading an insurrection, becoming the first president in the country’s history to be jailed while still in office. He was released in March to await trial without physical detention.
