South Korean investigators left the official residence of impeached South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol after a near-six-hour standoff, during which he defied their attempt to detain him. It is the latest confrontation in a political crisis that has paralyzed South Korean politics and seen two heads of state impeached in under a month.
The country’s anti-corruption agency said it withdrew its investigators after the presidential security service blocked them from entering Yoon’s residence for hours due to concerns about their safety.
The agency said its outnumbered investigators had several scuffles with presidential security forces and expressed “serious regret about the attitude of the suspect, who did not comply with the legal process.”
Photo: Reuters
The South Korean National Police Agency said it planned to investigate the chief and deputy chiefs of the presidential security service on suspicion of obstructing official duty and summoned them for questioning today.
Yoon has defied investigators’ attempts to question him for weeks. A Seoul court issued a warrant for Yoon’s detention on Tuesday, but enforcing it is complicated as long as he remains in his official residence.
Yoon’s lawyers, who filed a challenge to the warrant on Thursday, say it cannot be enforced at his residence due to a law that protects locations potentially linked to military secrets from search without the consent of the person in charge.
The office said it would discuss further actions, but did not immediately say whether it would make another attempt to detain Yoon. The warrant for his detention is valid for one week.
Yoon’s lawyers have also said that the South Korean Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which is leading a joint investigation with police and military investigators, lacks the authority to investigate rebellion charges.
Police officers do not have the legal authority to assist in detaining Yoon and could face arrest by either the “presidential security service or any citizens,” they said.
If investigators manage to detain Yoon, they would likely ask a court for permission to make a formal arrest. Otherwise, he would be released after 48 hours.
Liberal opposition Democratic Party floor leader Park Chan-dae called the anti-corruption agency’s withdrawal regrettable and urged the agency to make another attempt to detain Yoon yesterday.
Kwon Young-se, who heads the emergency leadership committee of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, called the agency’s effort to detain Yoon “highly unfair and exceedingly improper,” saying that there is no risk of Yoon attempting to flee or to destroy evidence.
Thousands of police officers gathered at Yoon’s residence yesterday, forming a perimeter around a growing group of pro-Yoon protesters who braved freezing temperatures for hours, waving South Korean and US flags while chanting slogans vowing to protect him.
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