Yoon rearrested, held in solitary without AC

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was rearrested and readmitted to Seoul Detention Center on Thursday, 124 days after a court ruled for his release on March 8.

After attending a pre-detention suspect questioning for 6 hours and 43 minutes at the Seoul Central District Court the day before, Yoon was transferred to the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, where he waited for the court's decision. A detention warrant was issued at 2:07 a.m. on Thursday morning, and he was then placed in a solitary cell of about 10 square meters in the facility.

His solitary cell has neither air conditioning nor a fridge. While it has a fan, inmates cannot operate it manually; it automatically turns on for 50 minutes and then off for 10 minutes. The cell is equipped with a storage cabinet, a folding dining table, a TV, and a sink. He must sleep on the floor with a blanket. Yoon received the exact same standard prison meal as other inmates at the detention center: soybean paste stew, steamed eggs, and seasoned cucumber and onion salad for lunch; and bean sprout soup, gochujang pork bulgogi, chili peppers, and ssamjang for dinner.

The issuance of the warrant immediately led to the suspension of the Presidential Security Service. According to relevant law on the treatment of former presidents, security and protection may be provided to former presidents and their spouses for a necessary period. However, this privilege is no longer applicable once they are formally detained and transferred to correctional authorities.

Yoon did not appear in his first trial on charges of leading an insurrection held at the Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Division 25, submitting a statement of absence for health reasons. His legal representatives argued that it was an unreasonable order for him to attend a trial in the morning just eight hours after his detention. “Even if the summons had been delivered by fax or phone, it is still questionable if it would be a legally valid procedure. It would be impossible for him to attend the trial even if the defendant wanted to,” his legal team said.

On the other hand, the special prosecutor’s team requested that the court implement countermeasures to prevent such a situation from repeating itself and consider specific actions, such as issuing a warrant, if the defendant is absent again in the future. With Yoon absent from the trial that day, the court carried out witness examinations of Ko Dong-hee, former planning director (Colonel), and others. It plans to have Yoon confirm the testimony at a later time.


손준영기자 hand@donga.com