Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. ( Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok have been banned from leaving the country as suspects in the alleged insurrection case related to former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law attempt, police said Tuesday.
The exit ban was reportedly imposed on Han and Choi around the middle of this month.
The police’s special investigation unit handling the high-profile case called in Han, Choi and former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min on Monday for questioning for about 10 hours about their alleged involvement in Yoon’s martial law declaration on Dec. 3 last year. Lee was slapped with the exit ban earlier in December.
The former ministers were reportedly grilled about whether they made false statements about the process of receiving martial law-related documents during a Cabinet meeting convened by Yoon on the night of Dec. 3, as police have completed an analysis of surveillance footage of the presidential office’s Cabinet meeting room and hallway.
Han has denied his charges, saying in February that he only realized he had been carrying the martial law declaration document in the back pocket of his suit after the decree was rescinded by an Assembly vote.
Choi, who is suspected of having received a memo from Yoon ordering a budget for an emergency legislative body during the Dec. 3 Cabinet meeting, has said that someone had handed him a “folded note” but he was too overwhelmed at the time to read it.
Police also questioned Lee over allegations that Yoon had ordered him to cut off the power and water supply at major local media outlets, though he testified earlier that Yoon did not give such orders.
(Yonhap)
