President Yoon Suk Yeol’s defense team has called on the prosecution to arrange the immediate release of Yoon in the wake of the Seoul Central District Court’s decision to rescind Yoon’s detention. 

Yoon’s lawyers made the call in a statement released on Friday, saying the court’s decision confirmed that the rule of law lives in the nation. 

The defense team said a president picked by the people cannot be willfully removed and paid its respects to the court for upholding laws and principles as the last bastion of human rights. 

The lawyers claimed that it would be unconstitutional for the prosecution to file an immediate appeal even if the Criminal Procedure Act stipulates that the defendant must be behind bars during the prosecution's seven-day period to immediately appeal a court decision to cancel detention. 

In making such a claim, the lawyers said there had been a Constitutional Court ruling back in 2011 that an immediate appeal to a court’s decision to suspend the execution of confinement is unconstitutional, adding that the same logic applies in the case of a court decision to rescind detention.