Seoul: Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok have been prohibited from leaving the country due to their status as suspects in an alleged insurrection case involving former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed attempt to declare martial law, authorities confirmed.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the exit ban on Han and Choi was put into effect around the middle of this month. The police’s special investigation unit, which is managing the high-profile case, summoned Han, Choi, and former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min on Monday. They were questioned for approximately 10 hours regarding their involvement in Yoon’s martial law declaration on December 3 of the previous year. Additionally, an existing exit ban on Lee, which was initially imposed in December, has been extended.

During the investigation, the former ministers were interrogated about potentially making false statements concerning the receipt of martial law-related documents during a Cabinet meeting convened by Yoon on the night of December 3. The police have completed an analysis of surveillance footage from the presidential office’s Cabinet meeting room and hallway as part of their investigation.

Han has denied the charges against him, stating in February that he only realized he had been carrying the martial law declaration document in his suit’s back pocket after the decree was nullified by an Assembly vote. Choi, suspected of having received a memo from Yoon directing a budget for an emergency legislative body during the December 3 Cabinet meeting, claimed that he received a “folded note” but was too overwhelmed to read it at the time.

The police also questioned Lee over allegations that Yoon had instructed him to cut off power and water supplies at major local media outlets, although Lee previously testified that Yoon did not issue such orders. This month, exit bans have also been extended for top Presidential Security Service (PSS) officials, including former chief Park Chong-jun and deputy head Kim Seong-hoon.

The investigation team has recently discovered signs that user information of Yoon, Hong Jang-won, former first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service, and Kim Bong-sik, former chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was remotely deleted from secure phone server records submitted by the PSS. While a suspect has yet to be identified, police have not ruled out the possibility of Yoon or PSS deputy chief Kim being involved in the erasure of these records.