The disgraced retired justice applied for bail last Tuesday.

His lawyer said Yang needs the time and physical freedom to better prepare for the trial.

He insisted that Yang presents a low flight risk as the prosecution has obtained ample evidence through a series of raids and also given his social status as a former top justice.

The documents on Yang's case presented by the prosecution to the court are known to be at least 200,000 pages long.

Prosecutors argue that he should remain confined considering the case is very grave and that Yang is very likely to seek to talk witnesses into testifying in court in his favor.

Prosecutors accuse him of having had his officials at the National Court Administration, the top court's governing body, devise detailed plans to influence trials that potentially had high political significance for the former president. Yang has denied the charges.

Yang is the first chief justice ever to have been arrested as a criminal suspect. He can be detained until July 11 pending the trial. (Yonhap)