South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was released from detention on March 8, a day after the Seoul Central District Court overturned his arrest order and prosecutors reaffirmed their intention not to appeal.
Yoon, who was detained on Jan. 15 on accusations of rebellion for declaring martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, was spotted going out of the prison center south of Seoul, waving and bowing to a mob of fans waiting for him.
Many of the fans could be seen waving both the South Korean and American flags. According to police estimates, some 55,000 Korean people gathered in the capital city to support Yoon.
“I appreciate the court’s courage and determination in correcting the illegality,” Yoon said in a statement. The president returned to his official residence on Saturday evening, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency (YNA).
Yoon was released 52 days after being detained, although he is still suspended from his duties, and his impeachment and criminal proceedings are ongoing. Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok remains South Korea's acting president.
Yoon was detained on Jan. 15 at his official house on suspicion of orchestrating an alleged uprising, and he was transported to South Korea's Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) for interrogation.
The prosecution then had a 10-day initial detention term to prosecute him on allegations of leading an uprising, extending his custody. However, the court determined that the indictment was received hours after the deadline, according to YNA.
The court also called into doubt the validity of the probe, stating that Yoon's purported uprising is outside the CIO authority.
Yoon's defense team applauded the court's March 7 judgment while condemning the prosecution for prolonging Yoon's release, which came 27 hours after the ruling. The prosecution has seven days to appeal before a person is released.
“The president’s release is not just about addressing an individual’s injustice but the beginning of a difficult journey to restore the collapsed rule of law in this country,” the president’s attorneys said in a release.
Yoon declared martial law on December 3, 2024, and has since justified his decision as a need to act against "pro-North Korean anti-state forces" within the opposition who were pushing impeachment bills against the chief prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, whom Yoon had directed to audit the troubled National Election Commission's computer systems.
Approximately 280 troops were sent to the Assembly, which voted overwhelmingly to override him and lift the decree.
Yoon, who has been accused of attempting to use the deployed military to prevent assembly leaders from gathering to vote against martial law, rescinded his declaration six hours after martial law was imposed. In a Dec. 12, 2024, statement, Yoon said that he deployed “a small number of troops—only enough to maintain order” at the Assembly while he planned to make “an emergency appeal to the public and inform Koreans about the current [judiciary impeachment] crisis in the form of martial law.”
The Assembly, led by the opposition Democratic Party, voted to impeach Yoon on Dec. 14, 2024, and suspend him from his official duties.
Yoon has denied that the declaration of martial law amounted to an alleged insurrection and argued that full martial law was never executed.
“The decree was intended simply to establish the format of martial law and never intended to be executed, nor was it possible to execute it because of the potential for conflict with higher-level laws,” his lawyer, Cha Gi-hwan, told the Constitutional Court during a Jan. 21 impeachment hearing.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo first succeeded Yoon but was impeached himself two weeks later and replaced by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok.
Yoon’s People Power Party celebrated the president’s release and urged the Constitutional Court to consider the Seoul Central District Court’s decision when making their own.
“It is a just decision, and the party hopes it serves as an opportunity to correct the distorted rule of law,” party spokesperson Shin Dong-wook said in a statement.
However, the opposition Democratic Party accused the court of worsening the national situation by freeing Yoon and demanded that the Constitutional Court formally impeach him. More than 32,000 people gathered in Seoul to oppose the release.
According to YNA, the decision to remove or restore Yoon is anticipated later this month, after hearings concluded on February 25.
If Yoon is ousted from office, a snap presidential election will take place within 60 days of the ruling.
South Korea’s opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is facing his own legal challenges ahead of the potential election as he appeals a lower court’s one-year suspended prison sentence for violating election law by making false statements during his 2022 presidential campaign. The Seoul High Court is expected to announce its verdict for that case on March 26.
