A Seoul court began deliberating on Thursday whether to place former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae in pretrial detention on charges of aiding former President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law.

Prosecutors argued that soon after Yoon declared martial law on December 3, Park instructed his ministry's senior officials to consider dispatching prosecutors to the joint investigation headquarters formed under military command.

The team has also accused Park of ordering an inspection of the detention facilities' available capacity.

The Seoul Central District Court had previously ruled against Park's detention, saying the prosecution had not sufficiently demonstrated that the defendant was aware of the illegality of his actions.

Since then, investigators have obtained an additional document accusing the Democratic Party of abusing its power in an apparent attempt to justify Yoon's actions, which they say Park received on Telegram the day after the martial law declaration.

The team also verified that the then-head of the Korea Correctional Service ordered an inspection of available detention capacity in the capital region and received a briefing on the matter.