Kang Ho-pil, former Army Ground Operations Command commander suspected of taking part in the 12/3 martial law rebellion, avoided arrest. The second joint special counsel team, which had sought to secure him at the end of its probe, faced a setback to its momentum as the warrant was denied again.
According to legal sources on the 14th, Lee Jong-rok, the Seoul Central District Court Director General in charge of rebellion warrants, held a pre-arrest interrogation (substantive warrant review) of the former commander the day before and denied the arrest warrant sought by Kwon Chang-young's second joint special counsel team, saying "there is room for dispute over the criminal allegations, and in light of the course of the investigation, it is hard to see a risk of evidence destruction or flight."
The joint special counsel team questioned the former commander as a suspect on the 7th and sought an arrest warrant on the 10th on charges of engaging in an important mission for rebellion.
The special counsel believes the former commander assembled an internal situation room at the Ground Operations Command immediately after the martial law declaration, ordered the crisis response unit and all command officers to convene, and shifted the command into a "martial law response posture," thereby taking part in carrying out martial law.
The command was found to have convened the crisis response unit through a voice broadcast system at about 10:36 p.m. on Dec. 3 last year, shortly after former President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law.
The former commander is also suspected of having taken part in related discussions before the execution of martial law.
A memo on the mobile phone of Yeo In-hyeong, former commander of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, secured earlier by the rebellion special counsel team, reportedly contained phrases believed to have been written before the martial law declaration, such as "it is the shared opinion of jtsb," "the four are prepared," and "the adversary must act first. A wartime situation or one uncontainable by police power must arrive." The special counsel believes "jtsb" refers to the Ground Operations commander, Special Warfare commander, Capital Defense commander, and Counterintelligence commander.
Except for the former commander, former Special Warfare Commander Gwak Jong-geun, former Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo, and former Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyeong are all on trial on charges of engaging in an important mission for rebellion.
However, Cho Eun-suk's special counsel team previously concluded that there was no indication the Ground Operations Command actually deployed troops or carried out specific missions and excluded the former commander from indictment.
Yeo, the former commander, also reportedly said in the rebellion special counsel's investigation that "the former commander brought in even a discharge application last summer and opposed martial law."
In this warrant hearing as well, the former commander was said to have fully denied the allegations, arguing that he did not know in advance about martial law and did not take part in its execution.
With the warrant denial, the joint special counsel team, which faces the end of its investigation on the 24th, is expected to inevitably see disruptions to its plan to secure suspects. The special counsel has already extended the investigation period twice and has asked the National Assembly to revise the law for a "third extension."
Meanwhile, since launching its investigation in February, the joint special counsel team has sought arrest warrants for 15 people, and only six have been issued.