Former President Yoon Suk Yeol defiantly refused to be questioned over a failed martial law decree last month.
South Korean investigators have requested an extension of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s arrest warrant, hours before the current warrant expires.
Anti-corruption investigators investigating Yoon over his Dec. 3 martial law proclamation failed to serve an arrest warrant on Friday after they were blocked by presidential security service guards who formed a human chain to prevent access to Yoon. .
The arrest warrant, the first against a sitting president, was set to expire at midnight local time on Monday (3:00 p.m. GMT). Investigating authorities said in a statement Monday that they had requested an extension at the Seoul Western District Court, but declined to say how long the extension would last if granted.
Earlier on Monday, the anti-graft agency said it requested that police take over efforts to arrest Yoon after its investigators failed to take him into custody.
The initial order was issued based on Yoon’s refusal to appear for questioning over his martial law decree, which led to his impeachment. He is also under criminal investigation for possible insurrection.
The request for an extension comes as South Korean prosecutors on Monday indicted the country’s defense intelligence commander, Moon Sang-ho, for his role in Yoon’s failed attempt to declare martial law.
The brief six-hour declaration of martial law plunged one of Asia’s strongest democracies into uncharted territory with the ouster of not only Yoon, but also the prime minister who became acting president.
For weeks, Yoon has defiantly holed up in his compound and refused to respond to stop and search warrants.
If authorities detain Yoon, who has already been suspended from office by lawmakers, he would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.
Yoon, defiant followers
However, Yoon and his followers have remained defiant. “We will protect the Presidential Security Service until midnight,” Kim Soo-yong, one of the protest organizers, told the AFP news agency. “If they get another court order, we’ll be back.”
Early Monday, dozens of lawmakers from Yoon’s People Power Party showed up outside his presidential residence and police blocked roads.
The country’s opposition Democratic Party has also called for the dissolution of the security service protecting the accused president.
Lawyers for the accused president have said the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) does not have the authority to handle his case since the law stipulates a broad list of high-ranking officials and violations it can investigate, but does not mention any insurrection. .
Yoon faces prison or, at worst, the death penalty if convicted of insurrection for briefly suspending civilian government and plunging South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.
Yoon’s actions last year prompted a rare rebuke from officials in his key ally, the United States. On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks in Seoul with South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok and Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul.
At a news conference, Blinken said Washington had expressed “serious concerns” to Seoul about some of the actions Yoon took during the course of his declaration of martial law. But events that have unfolded since then have reflected the image of South Korea as a democratic success, “which is remarkably strong.”
“The response that we have seen, and that we hope to continue to see, is peaceful and entirely consistent and in accordance with the constitution and the rule of law,” Blinken said.
