(Seoul) Investigators who came to arrest suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday for his failed attempt to impose martial law are engaged in a new face-to-face with his bodyguards who are blocking their operation, noted the AFP.
Posted at 4:20 p.m.
Updated at 5:06 p.m.
Hailey JO
Agence France-Presse
Agents of the CIO, the entity which centralizes the investigations into Mr. Yoon, “are in an impasse facing the Presidential Security Service (PSS) after showing their warrants”, including an arrest order, reported for its part Yonhap News Agency.
The PSS has already failed their first attempt on January 3.
Mr. Yoon, suspended from his functions, risks his mandate for having briefly introduced martial law on December 3, a shock measure that he had justified by his desire to protect the country from “North Korean communist forces” and “ eliminate elements hostile to the State.
Within a Parliament surrounded by soldiers, a sufficient number of deputies quickly thwarted his plans by voting for a text demanding the lifting of this state of exception. Put under pressure by elected officials, thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators and constrained by the Constitution, Mr. Yoon had to comply.
“The execution of the presidential arrest warrant has started. The situation is a crucial moment to maintain order and the rule of law in South Korea,” interim President Choi Sang-mok said in a statement, recalling “the importance of avoiding physical conflict.” .
Live television broadcasts showed IOC and police personnel being blocked by unidentified people as they tried to enter Mr. Yoon’s residence.
Investigators, who warned they would apprehend anyone obstructing them, were caught in a “physical confrontation as they tried to forcefully enter the presidential residence,” Yonhap said, without saying who was involved in the opposing camp.
Punches flew from both sides, according to an AFP journalist.
At least one person was injured after falling during the altercation and was exfiltrated by firefighters, television images showed.
Meanwhile, investigators are trying to access the site via a nearby hiking trail, according to Yonhap TV.
In front of the presidential home, supporters chant at the top of their lungs “Illegal mandate!” » while waving American flags.
-In addition, some 30 deputies from Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) are on site to protect their leader, Yonhap said.
Start of his trial
The country has been plunged into political chaos since the coup of the very unpopular Yoon Suk Yeol, suspended on December 14 after the National Assembly adopted an impeachment motion against him.
IOC investigators first tried to apprehend him on January 3 but came up against the PSS who were determined not to let them do so.
Their arrest warrant was renewed a few days later.
For this second raid, which promised to be extremely tense, the police decided not to carry firearms, limiting themselves to bulletproof vests, local media explained.
Yoon Suk Yeol’s protection officers had been strengthening the defenses of his home for days, with barbed wire and bus barriers blocking the entrance.
If arrested, which would be a first for a sitting South Korean head of state, Yoon Suk Yeol can be held in police custody for 48 hours under the active warrant. Investigators will have to request a new one to possibly extend his detention.
The ex-star magistrate’s legal team calls the order to arrest him “invalid.”
His chief of staff, Chung Jin-suk, said Tuesday that his office was “ready to consider all options for investigations and visits” to Mr. Yoon “at a third party location.”
Also on Tuesday, the Constitutional Court launched the examination of the dismissal of the conservative leader, with a first very short hearing. Mr. Yoon did not come forward citing “concerns” about security.
The trial will continue even without him.
The court has until mid-June to decide the future of Yoon Suk Yeol, still officially the president pending the verdict. The court may either permanently dismiss him or reinstate him in his functions.
