Seoul:<Text>
A special counsel team raided the Supreme Prosecutors Office in southern Seoul on Thursday, investigating former Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung's alleged involvement in former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law bid in 2024.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the team was tasked with examining allegations surrounding Yoon and his short-lived decree. Investigators conducted a search and seizure operation at the prosecutors' office as part of their probe into Shim's suspected role in the insurrection. Shim is accused of reviewing the potential dispatch of public prosecutors to a joint martial law investigation headquarters on December 3, 2024, coinciding with Yoon's declaration of martial law.
Evidence suggests that Shim engaged in three phone conversations with then Justice Minister Park Sung-jae during the period, leading to suspicions that Park may have directed Shim to involve prosecutors with the martial law initiative.
<P >The special counsel is also scrutinizing Shim's decision not to appeal a March 2025 court ruling that resulted in Yoon's release from custody. This decision followed his January arrest, which incited a courthouse riot among his supporters. Prosecutors reportedly intended to challenge the court's decision, but Shim allegedly blocked the appeal.Yoon was re-arrested in July when a court issued a warrant against him on multiple charges associated with his martial law attempt, including hindering investigators from detaining him. In February, a district court sentenced Yoon to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection through his martial law declaration.
Currently detained, Yoon has appealed the lower court's decision and is facing additional criminal trials related to his martial law attempt, his wife's alleged corruption, and the 2023 death of a Marine.
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