SEOUL: A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol, investigators said on Tuesday, prompting hundreds of supporters to gather at the gates of his private residence. Investigators probing Yoon over his December 3 declaration of martial law requested the warrant after he failed to report for questioning a third time. Crowds gathered outside his home on Tuesday wielding placards and South Korean flags, chanting: "Martial law legal! Impeachment invalid!" "The arrest warrant and search warrant... were issued this morning," the Joint Investigation Headquarters managing the probe into Yoon said in a statement.
Yoon's legal team described the arrest order as "illegal and invalid" and filed an injunction to nullify it. It is the first time in the country's history that a sitting president has been subject to an arrest warrant. "I came out here because I was shocked and horrified that they're trying to arrest the president," said Song Mi-ja, a pro-Yoon protester. "The martial law was not an insurrection, what they're trying to do now is one," she said. Police were sent to the area in large numbers and could be seen shouting at demonstrators to keep in line, but a route in and out of Yoon's residence remained clear.
Yoon has been stripped of his presidential duties by parliament and faces criminal charges of insurrection, which could result in life imprisonment or even the death penalty. "The arrest warrant and search and seizure warrant issued at the request of an agency without investigative authority are illegal and invalid," his lawyer Yoon Kab-keun said in a statement sent. He said his client was not guilty of insurrection, adding that there was no intention of disrupting "the constitutional order" or to stage "an uprising".
But a Corruption Investigation Office official said there was "sufficient probable cause" to suspect Yoon commissioned a crime. The warrant will be valid until Monday, the official told reporters, and if Yoon is detained he would likely be held at the Seoul detention centre. "There is a concern that the individual may refuse to comply with summons without justifiable reasons," they said. The Presidential Security Service (PSS) guarding Yoon have previously refused to comply with search warrants, making it unclear whether investigators and police will be able to execute the arrest.
Local media reported that an imminent arrest or search of the presidential residence was unlikely, because investigators would seek to coordinate with the PSS. Technically, anyone obstructing the execution of an arrest warrant could be arrested. Yun Bok-nam, president of Lawyers for a Democratic Society and who is not involved in the investigation, said that he predicted Yoon's arrest "will proceed smoothly" because the PSS has no legal standing to reject an arrest warrant.
Yoon is being investigated by prosecutors as well as a joint team comprising police, defence ministry and anti-corruption officials. A 10-page prosecutors' report said he authorised the military to fire weapons if needed to enter parliament during his failed martial law bid. The report also said there was evidence that he had been discussing declaring martial law with senior military officials as early as March. Yoon's lawyer had previously dismissed the prosecutors' report, saying that it was "a one-sided account that neither corresponds to objective circumstances nor common sense". — AFP
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