A Seoul court on Friday turned down the prosecution's warrant request to arrest a former chief of a local bank over the unfair hiring of employees. 

The Seoul Northern District Court rejected the writ filed against Lee Kwang-koo, former president and CEO of Woori Bank, saying that the charges laid against him are disputable and that there is no apparent personal benefit to him from the case.  

"Based on these grounds, it's difficult to recognize the need to arrest him at this moment," it said.    

Along with Lee, the court also denied an arrest warrant for one other Woori Bank executive. 

Lee, 60, is accused of having influenced the illicit hiring of 30 employees from 2015 to 2017. The prosecutors have been investigating Woori Bank officials since last November for their alleged involvement in giving special favors to some job candidates.

The prosecutors first launched the investigation into allegations that the bank hired 16 entry-level staff in 2016 who are related to senior government officials, important clients and other influential people. The investigative authorities later said there was unfair hiring in the bank's 2015 and 2017 recruitment. 

Lee resigned from his post last November following the prosecutor's investigation into the hiring scandal. (Yonhap)