S. Korea court rejects arrest warrant for ex-president

South Korea's ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing charges of orchestrating a rebellion when he declared martial law, arrives to attend his trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 12, 2025. —AHN YOUNG-JOON/POOL VIA REUTERS

SEOUL—A South Korean court rejected on Wednesday a request to issue an arrest warrant for former President Yoon Suk-yeol related to an investigation into his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, his lawyers said.

South Korea’s special prosecutor had asked the court on Tuesday to issue an arrest warrant for Yoon as an investigation intensified over the ousted leader’s botched bid to declare martial law.

A senior member of the special prosecutor’s team of investigators said on Tuesday that the arrest warrant was on a charge of obstruction and accused Yoon of refusing to respond to summons for questioning.

Lawyers representing Yoon criticized the special prosecutor for what they said were attempts to summon the former president “based on superficial and secondary matters that invited suspicion the probe was politically driven.”

Reuters

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.