impeach and was indicted on criminal charges<\/a> for declaring martial law last December, was cleared to be released from detention on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYoon has been in detention since being arrested in January on charges of leading an insurrection \u2013 one of the few criminal charges the president does not have immunity from. However, the Seoul Central District Court on Friday canceled his arrest warrant, allowing for his release, according to a court ruling reviewed by CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its ruling, the court said the crime of insurrection is not included within the investigative jurisdiction of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) \u2013 the agency that had requested the arrest warrant against Yoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court also said it was questionable whether the insurrection charges indictment was filed after the defendant\u2019s detention period had expired. It therefore canceled Yoon\u2019s arrest warrant to \u201censure procedural clarity and eliminate doubts regarding the legality of the investigation process,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any further unresolved \u201clegal controversies\u201d during the criminal trial could \u201cserve as grounds for annulment in a higher court and may also provide grounds for a retrial even after a significant amount of time has passed,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court will now send its ruling to the detention center \u2013 which said it expects to release Yoon by the end of Friday after receiving the documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yoon\u2019s lawyers praised the ruling, saying in a statement that the court had \u201cset the definition straight, declaring what laws and principles are,\u201d and that its decision showed \u201cthe rule of law is alive in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ruling adds to the uncertainty swirling around Yoon\u2019s various legal battles and the country\u2019s political future. South Korea\u2019s government has been in disarray for months, with parliament also voting to impeach its prime minister and the previous acting president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yoon\u2019s criminal charges are separate from his impeachment trial. The country\u2019s highest court, the Constitutional Court, is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to uphold his impeachment or reinstate Yoon to office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday\u2019s ruling means Yoon can now await the impeachment verdict from home instead of in detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His expected release will undoubtedly dismay the country\u2019s opposition \u2013 but be celebrated by supporters, many of whom have regularly gathered outside his detention center since January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kwon Young-se, chairman of Yoon\u2019s ruling People Power Party, welcomed the court\u2019s decision on Friday, calling it \u201can important moment to confirm that the rule of law and justice of the Republic of Korea are alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that he hoped the Constitutional Court \u201cwill make a fair and just ruling based solely on constitutional values\u201d during the impeachment trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CNN \u2014 South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who lawmakers voted to impeach and was indicted on criminal charges for declaring martial law last December, was cleared to be released from detention on Friday. Yoon has been in detention since being arrested in January on charges of leading an insurrection \u2013 one of the few criminal charges the president does not have immunity from. However, the Seoul Central District Court on Friday canceled his arrest warrant, allowing for his release, according to a court ruling reviewed by CNN. In its ruling, the court said the crime of insurrection is not included within the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45347,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45345\/revisions\/45347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}