Seoul Court Rejects Second Request to Extend Yoon Detention

Supporters of South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured on poster R) attend a rally on a road near the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 23, 2025, after Yoon arrived at the court for hearings that will decide whether to remove him from office. (AFP)
Supporters of South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured on poster R) attend a rally on a road near the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 23, 2025, after Yoon arrived at the court for hearings that will decide whether to remove him from office. (AFP)
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Seoul Court Rejects Second Request to Extend Yoon Detention

Supporters of South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured on poster R) attend a rally on a road near the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 23, 2025, after Yoon arrived at the court for hearings that will decide whether to remove him from office. (AFP)
Supporters of South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol (pictured on poster R) attend a rally on a road near the Constitutional Court in Seoul on January 23, 2025, after Yoon arrived at the court for hearings that will decide whether to remove him from office. (AFP)

A Seoul court rejected a second request Saturday to extend the detention of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed attempt to declare martial law, putting pressure on prosecutors to quickly indict him.

Yoon was arrested last week on insurrection charges, becoming the first sitting South Korean head of state to be detained in a criminal probe.

His December 3 martial law decree only lasted about six hours before it was voted down by lawmakers, but it still managed to plunge South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.

The Seoul Central District Court on Saturday turned down a request for a detention extension, prosecutors said in a brief statement.

This follows a ruling by the same court a day earlier when a judge stated it was "difficult to find sufficient grounds" to grant an extension.

Prosecutors had planned to keep the disgraced leader in custody until February 6 for questioning before formally indicting him, but that plan will now need to be adjusted.

"With the court's rejection of the extension, prosecutors must now work quickly to formally indict Yoon to keep him behind bars," Yoo Jung-hoon, an attorney and political commentator, told AFP.

Yoon has refused to cooperate with the criminal probe, with his legal defense team arguing investigators lack legal authority.

The suspended president is also facing a separate hearing in the Constitutional Court which, if it upholds his impeachment, would officially remove him from office.

An election would then have to be held within 60 days.



Vatican Cancels Pope’s Weekend Engagements as He Battles ‘Complex’ Infection 

Pedestrians walk past the statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for tests and treatment for an infection in Rome, on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
Pedestrians walk past the statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for tests and treatment for an infection in Rome, on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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Vatican Cancels Pope’s Weekend Engagements as He Battles ‘Complex’ Infection 

Pedestrians walk past the statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for tests and treatment for an infection in Rome, on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
Pedestrians walk past the statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for tests and treatment for an infection in Rome, on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

Pope Francis, who began his fifth day in hospital on Tuesday for what doctors have described as a "complex" respiratory infection, will not take part in this weekend's Holy Year events, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

The 88-year-old pontiff has been suffering from a respiratory infection for more than a week and was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on Friday.

A planned public papal audience set for Saturday had been cancelled "due to the health condition of the Holy Father", the Vatican said in a brief statement.

A papal mass scheduled for Sunday will still take place, but will be led instead by a senior Vatican official, it added.

The Vatican said on Monday that doctors had changed the pope's drug therapy for the second time during his hospital stay to tackle a "complex clinical situation". They described it as a "polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract".

Doctors say polymicrobial diseases can be caused by a mix of viruses, bacteria and fungi.

Francis, who has been pontiff since 2013, has had influenza and other health problems several times over the past two years. As a young adult he developed pleurisy and had part of one lung removed, and in recent times has been prone to lung infections.