Seoul court rejects second request to extend Yoon detention

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 defence 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.