Investigators arrested ousted South Korean President Yun Suk-Yeol on Wednesday on charges of inciting rebellion against the government, CNN reported. “The Joint Investigation Headquarters arrested President Yun at 10:33 a.m. on Wednesday,” Al Jazeera said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
If the charges against him are proven, Yun could face the death penalty or life imprisonment under South Korea’s constitution. According to CNN, police had been trying to arrest him for weeks, but the military team assigned to protect the president was guarding his residence and creating obstacles to his arrest.
According to Al Jazeera, in a video message recorded before his arrest, Yun said he would go to trial for failing to implement military rule. “I have decided to respond to the Corruption Investigation Office,” Al Jazeera quoted Yun as saying, adding that he had not accepted the legitimacy of the investigation but would participate in it “to prevent any unfortunate bloodshed.”
According to Al Jazeera, hundreds of people, including supporters, gathered outside Yun’s home, while lawmakers from the ruling conservative People Power Party and a group of Yun’s lawyers also tried to prevent the arrest inside the residential compound.
According to CNN, the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which is investigating in conjunction with the police and the Ministry of Defense, first tried to arrest him earlier this month, but it failed when soldiers and presidential security personnel blocked 80 police and investigators from reaching the presidential palace.
The Corruption Eradication Commission can detain him for a maximum of 48 hours. According to Al Jazeera, they will have to decide whether to apply for a warrant to detain the president. A South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for him after he failed to comply with three requests for assistance from investigators in recent weeks, the Corruption Eradication Commission said.
Earlier, on December 14 last year, Yoon was impeached by the National Assembly for attempting to impose military rule in the country. The vote to impeach the South Korean president was 204 to 85. Yun was suspended from office after being impeached.
Yoon refuses to make statements after arrest: S. Korean investigators
South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said Wednesday that during the investigation conducted from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. local time, the impeached President Yoon Suk-Yeol consistently refused to make any statements and declined to allow the questioning process to be recorded or videotaped.
Local media quoted the CIO as saying that it is currently negotiating with the presidential security service on whether to transfer Yoon to the Seoul Detention Center for custody. Additionally, it is considering applying for a detention warrant from the Seoul Western District Court, which issued the arrest warrant against Yoon. If approved, the detention period could be extended to a maximum of 20 days. The CIO plans to transfer Yoon to the prosecution after 10 days of detention.
In response, Yoon’s legal team issued a statement emphasizing that the CIO does not have the authority to investigate the president and the arrest warrant is “illegal.” The team vowed to hold the CIO and the police legally accountable for the unlawful execution of the arrest warrant, according to the statement.
