SEOUL: Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was back in a solitary jail cell on Thursday with basic food and a khaki prison uniform after prosecutors secured a new detention warrant over his bid to impose martial law last year.
The Seoul Central District Court’s decision to approve the warrant bolstered the special counsel investigation into allegations that Yoon’s move in December represented obstruction of justice and abuse of power.
The court said in a statement it granted the request because of concerns Yoon could seek to destroy evidence, returning him to confinement at the Seoul Detention Center where he spent 52 days earlier in the year before being released four months ago on technical grounds.
He moved back with his wife and his 11 dogs and cats to their 164 square metre (1,765 square feet) apartment in an upscale district of Seoul. The couple’s net worth is estimated at 7.5 billion won ($5.47 million), according to a government filing.
But Yoon will now be housed in a 10 square-metre solitary cell, have to wear a two-piece khaki-coloured uniform and sleep on a foldable mattress on the floor without an air conditioner, an official at the detention centre and media reports said. With a heat wave gripping the country, Yoon will have to rely on a small electric fan that switches off at night, Park Jie-won, an opposition lawmaker who had been incarcerated there, said on a YouTube talk show.
The detention facility served a breakfast of steamed potatoes and mini cheese breads for inmates on Thursday, another official said.
The conservative politician faces criminal charges of insurrection over his martial law decree, which could carry a sentence of life in prison or death. –Agencies
