Yoon behind bars: Visitor ban to be lifted, lawyers mull bail request
Ruling party lawmakers, Yoon's aides expected to visit the arrested president at the Seoul Detention Center after Lunar New Year holiday
A ban on visitors to President Yoon Suk Yeol will be lifted on Friday, allowing the sitting president, who is under pretrial detention while indicted over the martial law crisis, to receive visitors other than his lawyers.
Right-wing politicians are apparently seeking to take advantage of the eased restrictions to rally support for the conservative president.
Presidential officials, including Yoon's Chief of Staff Chung Jin-suk and Chung's predecessor Kim Dae-ki, who served in the first two years of Yoon's term, are reportedly mulling a visit to Yoon as soon as Friday, after the Lunar New Year, or Seollal, holiday.
The presidential office declined to comment when asked about plans for them to visit the detention center.
Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of Yoon's ruling People Power Party, is also among the lawmakers expected to visit the Seoul Detention Center after the Seollal holiday.
'It is only right to visit the president -- whom we once served -- when he is going through tough times,' Kweon was quoted as saying by local media outlet MBN.
Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the ruling party also told reporters Tuesday that the lawmakers, including himself, wish to meet with and encourage the president. The five-term lawmaker said he plans to visit the detention center next week.
Yoon is allowed to meet visitors once a day.
This came as the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which led a joint investigation with the police and the military into Yoon's martial law declaration, requested that the Seoul Detention Center lift Yoon's visitation ban after the investigative body transferred Yoon's case to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on Jan. 23.
The CIO, which banned Yoon from having visitors other than his legal representatives, citing concerns about destruction of evidence, said it was now the task of prosecutors to take appropriate measures against Yoon, according to the CIO. The measure was in effect for a week, prohibiting people close to Yoon, including the first lady Kim Keon Hee, from visiting the arrested president.
Although the visitor restriction was lifted last week, inmates at the prison cannot have visitors on weekends and national holidays, which means the detained president will be able to meet with his associates once the Lunar New Year holiday is over on Friday.
Meanwhile, the president's legal representatives are expected to apply for bail.
Unless the court approves the bail request, Yoon can be held at the detention center for up to six months.
Prosecutors indicted him on Sunday on charges of insurrection, cutting short their investigation, after the Seoul Central District Court dismissed two consecutive requests from the prosecution on Jan. 24 and 25 seeking to extend its warrant and continue gathering evidence.
The court ruled that an extension was neither necessary nor justifiable given that the prosecution is not an investigative authority.
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