EXPLAINER Possibility of evidence tampering key factor in ex-president's re-arrest

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul, Wednesday, after the court reviewed a warrant for his arrest over his martial law declaration. Joint Press Corps

A high risk of evidence destruction and pressuring of key witnesses to change statements were the main reasons behind a court decision to issue an arrest warrant for former President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Seoul Central District Court issued the warrant at around 2 a.m. Thursday, after weighing whether detention was necessary to investigate multiple charges against Yoon regarding his Dec. 3 martial law declaration.

It was Yoon’s second arrest on treason allegations; he was detained for the first time on Jan. 19 and released on March 8.

During the nearly seven hours of court review for the warrant, the special counsel team investigating his case emphasized what it called a high risk of evidence tampering on multiple fronts, highlighting Yoon’s alleged commands to key aides to destroy evidence.

According to investigators, he ordered former Presidential Security Service (PSS) Deputy Chief Kim Sung-hoon to delete from unregistered secret phones the conversation records between the former president and three top military officials to whom he instructed the mobilization of troops to the National Assembly.

The former president is also accused of having Kang Eui-gu, a presidential secretary, fabricate a false martial law proclamation and collect signatures from Cabinet members several days after the declaration, in an attempt to retroactively legitimize the declaration, which lacked due process.

In addition, investigators raised the possibility of Yoon’s legal team pressuring key witnesses and suspects to recant their statements. Kim and Kang altered their testimonies, giving statements favorable to Yoon when Yoon’s lawyers were present during questioning and giving unfavorable ones when they were not present — a possibility which the court accepted as grounds for suspicion of evidence tampering.

These actions and Yoon’s continuous blanket denials of all allegations, they argued, amounted to deliberate attempts to undermine the case and were cited as key grounds for him to be arrested again.

During the court hearing, Yoon claimed he did not order the deletion of the phone records, only giving instructions for security measures, which Kim misunderstood. He also said he now has no power to make witnesses recant their testimonies. The court did not accept these claims.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul, Wednesday, after the court review on a warrant for his arrest. Joint Press Corps

The court also accepted the special counsel’s argument that Yoon posed a flight risk. Despite the severity of the charges, he has repeatedly failed to comply with requests to appear for questioning without valid justification and has remained uncooperative during trial proceedings. His refusal to comply with investigators resulted in an attempt by the police to detain him for questioning in January that led to a conflict between police officers and PSS staff.

Yoon now faces a broad array of charges, including abuse of power, obstruction of special official duties, falsification and use of official documents, violations of the Presidential Records Act and Presidential Security Act, damage to public records and ordering the concealment of suspects.

According to the law, the special counsel is scheduled to indict him on these charges within 20 days while also investigating other allegations.

Three distinct special counsel teams have been formed to investigate Yoon and former first lady Kim Keon Hee on a range of serious allegations. The largest team, with 60 prosecutors, is scrutinizing charges of rebellion and treason related to Yoon’s martial law declaration. The other teams are separately examining the 2023 death of a Marine during a search-and-rescue mission and various accusations against the former first lady, including stock manipulation and bribery.