SEOUL (Reuters) -A South Korean court rejected prosecutors’ request to issue an arrest warrant for the head of a military drone unit as part of an investigation into former President Yoon Suk Yeol and drone operations in North Korea, Yonhap news agency said on Monday.
The Seoul Central District Court dismissed the special counsel’s request, saying the arrest would “excessively limit the suspect’s right to defense,” Yonhap reported.
South Korean prosecutors on Sunday said they had sought court approval to detain the drone unit’s chief Kim Yong-dae after indicting the jailed ex-President Yoon on Saturday on additional charges related to his short-lived declaration of martial law in December.
Kim was arrested on Friday without a court warrant, media said. Prosecutors and police are permitted to make an “emergency arrest” if they have a strong belief someone is guilty of a serious crime and may flee or destroy evidence.
Prosecutors summoned Kim last week regarding accusations that Yoon ordered a covert drone operation into the North last year to inflame tensions between the neighbours and justify his martial law decree.
Kim told reporters the incident was part of a “clandestine military operation” in response to trash balloons sent from the North and not intended to provoke the neighbouring nation.
In October, North Korea said the South had sent drones to scatter anti-North Korea leaflets over Pyongyang, and published photos of the remains of a crashed South Korean military drone.
South Korea at the time declined to disclose whether it had sent the drones.
(Reporting by Heekyong YangEditing by Christina Fincher)
