Yoon Suk Yeol, the impeached president of South Korea, did not appear for his questioning on Thursday after requesting to push it back due to his health, CNN reports.
On Wednesday, Yoon was arrested and questioned by South Korean police on Wednesday over corruption and his short-lived martial law declaration — a decision that plunged South Korea into political turmoil and baffled Korean Americans, according to AsAmNews.
Yoon is being held at the Seoul Detention Center, where other high-ranking politicians have previously spent time, according to Yonhap News Agency. During Wednesday’s two-and-a-half-hour questioning, he stood by his declaration of martial law but refused to be filmed, according to a CIO official.
Spokesperson Kim Baek-ki told reporters that prosecutors from South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) entered Yoon’s residence and arrested him, and he subsequently left with investigators in a motorcade, according to ABC News.
Yoon is wanted over numerous criminal charges relating to his martial law declaration, which include accusations of leading an insurrection. If found guilty, such charges can be punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty, CNN reports.
Yoon’s lawyers have accused his arrest warrant of being “an illegal, invalid warrant” and have sworn to take legal action against its execution.
Yoon has also been accused of sending troops to the National Assembly on December 3 to prevent lawmakers from voting down his martial law decree, per The Guardian. He was then impeached on December 14, with a South Korean court issuing an arrest warrant on December 31, per ABC News.
Police tried to arrest Yoon earlier this month, but it was called off after a standoff between police and his security team outside his property.
Yoon is the first sitting president in South Korea’s history to be arrested, but the country has a history of prosecuting and imprisoning former leaders, per CBC.
Weeks after Yoon’s impeachment, former prime minister and acting president Han Duck-soo was also impeached. The former financial minister, Choi Sang-mok, is the current acting president, Asia News Network reports.
The Constitutional Court promised to take the case against Yoon as a “top priority.” The Court is also overseeing impeachment cases for top members of the Yoon administration, including the justice minister, prosecutors and other senior officials, according to CNN.
After the 48-hour window from his arrest passes, authorities need to decide whether to release him or seek a fresh warrant to detain him for up to 20 days, The Guardian reports.
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