Kim Seong-hoon, Vice Administrator of the Presidential Security Service, and Lee Kwang-woo, Deputy Minister, who are charged with obstructing the arrest of President Yoon Suk-yeol, avoided detention.
On the 21st, Judge Heo Joon-seok of the Seoul Western District Court conducted a pre-arrest interrogation for Kim and Lee, and subsequently rejected the police's arrest warrant.
Judge Heo explained the reason for the rejection, noting, "There is room for the defendant to contest the criminal charges, and detention at this stage excessively limits the right to defense."
Additionally, Judge Heo stated, "Most of the evidence needed to prove the criminal charges has been sufficiently collected, and it is difficult to argue that the defendant is likely to flee at this point to avoid the investigation."
Kim and Lee are facing charges of obstructing President Yoon's first arrest operation conducted by the police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.
Furthermore, there are allegations of improperly taking personnel actions against security service officials who did not follow the directive to prevent the arrest, as well as instructing them to delete records from security phones.