Keystone-SDA
South Korean justice issued a new arrest warrant against ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday. He was eagerly awaited by South Korean investigators to try a second time to apprehend the head of state suspended from his functions and holed up in Seoul.
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January 7, 2025 – 3:25 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) “The renewed arrest warrant for suspect Yoon was issued today afternoon,” investigators announced in a statement. He is motivated by Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief attempt to impose martial law in the country.
The first arrest warrant, issued on December 31, expired on Monday afternoon without the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) managing to seize Mr. Yoon for questioning.
On Friday, CIO investigators supported by police officers entered his residence. But they came up against around 200 soldiers and agents of the Presidential Security Service (PSS) and retreated, empty-handed, after six hours of a tense face-to-face. Investigators refiled a request Monday evening with the Seoul West District Court to extend the arrest warrant.
Inexperience
For Yun Bok-nam, president of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society association, the failure of the first attempt to arrest the deposed president can be explained above all by the inexperience of the IOC, which has only four years of experience. existence, has fewer than 100 employees and has never charged anyone yet.
“Naturally, they have no experience with arrests, let alone the arrest of a president,” emphasizes Mr. Yun. “Police cooperation is essential,” believes the lawyer. IOC leader Oh Dong-woon apologized Tuesday for failing to arrest the president, while admitting he was unsure whether he was still at his residence.
“I am examining various possibilities,” he commented, responding to a deputy who asked him if the suspended president had fled. The IOC, the South Korean National Police and the Defense Ministry’s investigation department are jointly investigating Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to impose martial law on December 3 and muzzle Parliament by sending in the army.
“Fortress”
After the new arrest warrant was announced, supporters of Mr. Yoon immediately announced their intention to support him in front of his residence. “We are now heading towards Yoon’s residence. Those living in the countryside will join us early in the morning,” Rhee Kang-san, 35, told AFP.
According to opposition MP Youn Kun-young, the presidential residence “is being transformed into a fortress”, with guards installing barbed wire there. The deposed conservative president, whose political action was constantly hampered by a Parliament dominated by the opposition, said he wanted to protect the country from “North Korean communist forces” and “eliminate elements hostile to the State”.
But he had to backtrack a few hours later, the deputies having managed to meet in a hemicycle surrounded by special forces to vote against martial law, while thousands of demonstrators gathered outside. “We will stick together in this fight. I really hope Mr. Yoon will be arrested,” commented hopeful Bae Hoon, 46, who spent two nights outside the presidential residence despite freezing temperatures on Tuesday.
Legal battle
Mr. Yoon was impeached on December 14 by the National Assembly. He is also the target of a complaint for “rebellion”, a crime punishable by death, and “abuse of authority”, punishable by five years in prison. Mr. Yoon vowed last week to “fight to the end.”
His lawyers contest the legality of the arrest warrant and the jurisdiction of the IOC. They argue that the law gives this body authority to investigate a specific series of offenses committed by high-ranking officials, but that the list does not include the crime of “rebellion.”
Yoon Suk Yeol officially remains the head of state, and is only suspended until the Constitutional Court confirms or overturns his dismissal voted by the deputies. The Court has until mid-June to rule and has set January 14 as the start of the impeachment trial, which in the absence of Mr. Yoon will continue without him. If it validates the impeachment, a snap presidential election will take place within two months.
