A Seoul court on Wednesday refused to issue an arrest warrant for former Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, who is accused of interfering with a ministry investigation into the military's political intervention ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

Kim, who headed the ministry from 2010-2014, is suspected of pressuring ministry officials into toning down the inquiry into a massive political maneuver carried out by the military's cyber command to influence public opinion online in favor of then-ruling party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye.

The court said that there is a low risk of him fleeing or destroying evidence.

It is the second time prosecutors have sought an arrest warrant for Kim. In November, he was released from an 11-day detention after a court granted a motion to reconsider the legality of an arrest warrant issued over the same suspicions.

Following its 2013-14 probe into the alleged political meddling by the cyberwarfare wing, the Criminal Investigation Command under the defense ministry concluded that no top officials were involved in the scheme, which violated rules about maintaining political neutrality.

But in a recently reopened probe, a former military investigator made statements indicating that Kim issued direct orders regarding the internal probe into the command's suspected political meddling.

Three officials have been arrested for allegedly following his orders to block the investigation. (Yonhap)