The comprehensive special counsel team said on the 12th that it had sent former President Yoon Suk-yeol to trial on a charge of abuse of authority to interfere with the exercise of rights in connection with allegations that he ordered the dissemination of messages justifying the Dec. 3 martial law.
According to the comprehensive special counsel team, the former president is accused of having government officials from the Office of National Security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other agencies disseminate messages to key allies—including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the European Union (EU)—that justified the Dec. 3 martial law.
The comprehensive special counsel team also indicted former Office of National Security Deputy Minister Shin Won-sik without detention on charges of engaging in important duties related to insurrection and abuse of authority to interfere with the exercise of rights. The former deputy minister is accused of conspiring with former President Yoon and former Office of National Security First Deputy Director Kim Tae-hyo to disseminate messages justifying martial law to certain countries, and of abusing authority by making officials of the Office of National Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs perform duties they were not obligated to do. The comprehensive special counsel team indicted the former deputy director on the same charges on the 29th of last month with detention.
The comprehensive special counsel team said it applied only the charge of abuse of authority to interfere with the exercise of rights to the former president because a trial is already underway on charges including being the leader of an insurrection. Regarding the former deputy minister, it explained that he was indicted without detention because, compared with the former deputy director Kim, his degree of involvement was judged to be relatively minor.
An official from the special counsel team said, "Along with filing the indictment, we submitted a motion to consolidate the above case with the former deputy director Kim's case for a combined hearing," adding, "Through this, we hope the trials of the three co-defendants proceed in the same process."