SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was formally arrested early Sunday, days after being apprehended at his presidential compound in Seoul. He faces doable imprisonment over his ill-fated declaration of martial regulation final month.
Yoon’s arrest may mark the start of an prolonged interval in custody for him, lasting months or extra.
The choice to arrest Yoon triggered unrest on the Seoul Western District Court docket, the place dozens of his supporters destroyed the court docket’s foremost door and home windows. They used plastic chairs and police shields that they managed to wrestle away from officers. Some acquired inside a hallway and have been seen throwing objects and utilizing hearth extinguishers.
A whole bunch of cops have been deployed to suppress the riot on the court docket. Dozens of individuals have been arrested on-site, whereas some injured cops have been seen being handled at ambulance vans. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not any court docket workers have been injured.
Following an hourlong deliberation, the court docket granted regulation enforcement’s request for an arrest warrant on Yoon, seeing him as a risk to destroy proof. Yoon and his legal professionals on Saturday appeared earlier than the court docket’s choose throughout a listening to and argued for his launch.
Yoon, who has been in detention since he was apprehended Wednesday in a large regulation enforcement operation at his residential compound, faces potential riot fees linked to his declaration of martial regulation on Dec. 3, which set off the nation’s most severe political disaster since its democratization within the late Eighties.
The Corruption Investigation Workplace for Excessive-Rating Officers, which is main a joint investigation with police and the army, can now lengthen Yoon’s detention to twenty days, throughout which they may switch the case to public prosecutors for indictment.
Yoon’s legal professionals may additionally file a petition to problem the court docket’s arrest warrant.
Yoon’s look in court docket triggered chaotic scenes in close by streets, the place hundreds of his fervent supporters rallied for hours calling for his launch. Even earlier than the court docket issued a warrant for Yoon’s arrest, protesters repeatedly clashed with police who detained dozens of them, together with about 20 who climbed over a fence in an try to strategy the court docket. A minimum of two autos carrying anti-corruption investigators have been broken as they left the court docket after arguing for Yoon’s arrest.
Yoon’s legal professionals stated he spoke for about 40 minutes to the choose throughout the almost five-hour closed-door listening to on Saturday. His authorized workforce and anti-corruption companies introduced opposing arguments about whether or not he needs to be held in custody. The legal professionals didn’t share his particular feedback.
Following the listening to, Yoon was transported again to the detention middle, the place he awaited the choice. Neither Yoon nor his legal professionals instantly commented on the arrest warrant.
Yoon was transported to the court docket from a detention middle in Uiwang, close to Seoul, in a blue Justice Ministry van escorted by police and the presidential safety service, to attend the listening to on the court docket forward of its warrant determination.
The motorcade entered the court docket’s basement parking area as hundreds of Yoon’s supporters gathered in close by streets regardless of a heavy police presence. Some protesters broke by way of the police strains and tapped on the home windows of his van approaching the court docket. Yoon didn’t converse to reporters.
After its investigators have been attacked by protesters in a while Saturday, the anti-corruption company requested media corporations to obscure the faces of its members attending the listening to.
Yoon Kab-keun, one of many president’s legal professionals, stated the president deliberate to argue to the choose that his decree was a professional train of his powers and that accusations of riot wouldn’t maintain up earlier than a prison court docket or the Constitutional Court docket, which is reviewing whether or not to formally take away him from workplace or reinstate him.
Yoon’s protection minister, police chief, and several other high army commanders have already been arrested and indicted for his or her roles within the enforcement of martial regulation.
The disaster started when Yoon, in an try to interrupt by way of legislative gridlock, imposed army rule and despatched troops to the Nationwide Meeting and election workplaces. The standoff lasted solely hours after lawmakers who managed to get by way of a blockade voted to raise the measure. The opposition-dominated meeting voted to question him on Dec. 14.
If prosecutors indict Yoon on riot and abuse of energy fees, that are the allegations now being examined by investigators, they may maintain him in custody for as much as six months earlier than trial.
Beneath South Korean regulation, orchestrating a riot is punishable by life imprisonment or the demise penalty.
Yoon’s legal professionals have argued that there isn’t any have to detain him throughout the investigation, saying he doesn’t pose a risk to flee or destroy proof.
Investigators reply that Yoon ignored a number of requests to seem for questioning, and that the presidential safety service blocked an try to detain him on Jan. 3. His defiance has raised issues about whether or not he would adjust to prison court docket proceedings if he’s not underneath arrest.
