Seoul, July 11 (IANS) A South Korean special counsel team said on Friday it has asked arrested former President Yoon Suk Yeol to appear for questioning next Monday as part of a probe into his attempt to impose martial law.

“We have notified Yoon’s attorney that the former president should appear for questioning at 2 p.m. next Monday,” assistant special counsel Park Ji-young said during a press briefing.

Yoon, who has been held at the Seoul Detention Centre since his second arrest on Thursday, was summoned for a questioning originally scheduled for Friday afternoon, but did not appear after submitting a written reason for absence to special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team.

Yoon has cited health issues as a reason for his absence, but Park said the special counsel team confirmed through officials at the correctional facility that Yoon has no health issue serious enough to prevent him from attending the questioning.

In the event Yoon fails to appear for questioning again, Park suggested the special counsel will consider bringing him in by force.

“You can assume we will proceed in line with the steps under the Criminal Procedure Code,” she said.

Yoon was taken into custody early Thursday after a court issued a warrant to arrest him over five key charges, including his alleged violation of the rights of Cabinet members by calling only a select few to a meeting held shortly before he declared martial law on December 3.

Cho’s team also accused the former president of creating a false martial law declaration document after December 3 to add legitimacy to his actions, and having it signed by then Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and then Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun before discarding it.

In addition, Yoon is accused of instructing the presidential spokesperson for foreign press to distribute false statements after the martial law attempt, ordering the Presidential Security Service (PSS) to block his detention by investigators in early January and ordering the PSS to delete call records from secure phones used by three military commanders.

This is the second time Yoon has been arrested, Yonhap news agency reported.

The first time was in January when he was still in office, but a court later accepted his request to cancel his arrest, granting his release in March.

–IANS

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