South Korea court rejects arrest warrant for ex-president Yoon

SEOUL (Reuters) -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 spokesperson for the Seoul Central District Court and the prosecution office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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 criticised 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".

Nonetheless, his legal team said Yoon would comply with another summons and appear for questioning on Saturday.

The special prosecutor had said it would consider seeking another arrest warrant if Yoon failed to turn up for questioning on Saturday, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

Yoon, who is already facing a criminal trial on insurrection charges for issuing the martial law declaration, was arrested in January after resisting authorities trying to take him into custody, but was released after 52 days on technical grounds.

The former president is fighting the charges against him that include masterminding insurrection, which is punishable by death or life in prison. He maintains that he declared martial law on December 3 to sound the alarm over the threat to democracy posed by the then-opposition Democratic Party.

The special prosecutor was appointed just days after liberal President Lee Jae-myung took office on June 4 following his victory in a snap election called after Yoon's ouster in April. The prosecutor has launched a team of more than 200 prosecutors and investigators to take over ongoing investigations into Yoon.

Separately, the Seoul Central District Court issued a warrant on Wednesday for Yoon's former defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, to extend his detention, citing concerns over potential destruction of evidence.

Kim played a leading role in recommending and planning martial law, and is in jail amid an ongoing trial on insurrection charges.

He has denied wrongdoing and said imposing martial law was intended to raise alarm over the opposition's dominance and gather information related to election fraud concerns.

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang, Joyce Lee and Ju-min Park; editing by Ed Davies and Mark Heinrich)