Seok Dong-hyeon, one of many legal professionals for South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, speaks to the media upon his arrival on the Seoul Western District Courtroom in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. —AP Picture/Ahn Younger-joon
SEOUL, South Korea — 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 attainable imprisonment over his ill-fated declaration of martial regulation final month.
Yoon’s arrest might mark the start of an prolonged interval in custody, lasting months or extra.
The choice to arrest Yoon triggered unrest on the Seoul Western District Courtroom, the place dozens of his supporters destroyed the courtroom’s major door and home windows. They used plastic chairs and police shields that they managed to wrestle away from officers. Some bought contained in the constructing and had been seen throwing objects and utilizing hearth extinguishers.
Lots of of law enforcement officials had been deployed to suppress the riot on the courtroom. Dozens of individuals had been arrested onsite, whereas some injured law enforcement officials had been seen being handled at ambulance vans. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not any courtroom workers had been injured.
Choose deliberated for 8 hours
Following eight hours of deliberation, the courtroom granted regulation enforcement’s request for an arrest warrant for Yoon, saying he was a risk to destroy proof. Yoon and his legal professionals on Saturday appeared earlier than the courtroom and argued for his launch.
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Yoon, who has been in detention since he was apprehended Wednesday in an enormous regulation enforcement operation at his residential compound, faces potential revolt prices linked to his declaration of martial regulation on Dec. 3, which set off the nation’s most critical political disaster since its democratization within the late Nineteen Eighties.
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The Corruption Investigation Workplace for Excessive-Rating Officers, which is main a joint investigation with police and the navy, can now prolong Yoon’s detention to twenty days, throughout which they are going to switch the case to public prosecutors for indictment.
Yoon’s legal professionals might additionally file a petition to problem the courtroom’s arrest warrant.
Yoon’s look in courtroom triggered chaotic scenes in close by streets, the place 1000’s of his fervent supporters rallied for hours calling for his launch. Even earlier than the courtroom issued the 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 and method the courtroom. At the least two automobiles carrying anti-corruption investigators had been broken as they left the courtroom after arguing for Yoon’s arrest.
Yoon’s legal professionals stated he spoke for about 40 minutes to the decide through the almost five-hour closed-door listening to Saturday. His authorized group and anti-corruption companies offered opposing arguments about whether or not he needs to be held in custody.
Yoon’s protection minister, police chief and a number of other high navy commanders have already been arrested and indicted for his or her roles within the enforcement of martial regulation.
Yoon’s lawyer decries his arrest
The disaster started when Yoon, in an try to interrupt by means of legislative gridlock, imposed navy rule and despatched troops to the Nationwide Meeting and election places of work. The standoff lasted solely hours after lawmakers who managed to get by means of a blockade voted to raise the measure. The opposition-dominated meeting voted to question him on Dec. 14.
His political destiny now lies with the Constitutional Courtroom, which is deliberating whether or not to formally take away him from workplace or reinstate him.
Seok Dong-hyeon, one in every of Yoon’s legal professionals, known as the courtroom’s resolution to difficulty the warrant “the epitome of anti-constitutionalism and anti-rule of regulation,” sustaining the president’s declare that his martial regulation decree was a reputable act of governance. He pointed to the chaos on the Seoul Western Courtroom and stated Yoon’s arrest would encourage extra anger from his supporters. Yoon’s Folks Energy Occasion regretted his arrest but in addition pleaded for his supporters to chorus from additional violence.
The liberal opposition Democratic Occasion, which drove the legislative effort to question Yoon on Dec. 14, stated his arrest can be a “cornerstone for restoring the collapsed constitutional order.”
Yoon was transported to the courtroom 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 courtroom forward of its warrant resolution.
The motorcade entered the courtroom’s basement parking house as 1000’s of Yoon’s supporters gathered in close by streets amid a heavy police presence. Following the listening to, Yoon was transported again to the detention middle, the place he awaited the choice. He didn’t converse to reporters.
After its investigators had been attacked by protesters in a while Saturday, the anti-corruption company requested media firms to obscure the faces of its members attending the listening to.
‘Martial regulation decree was reputable’
Yoon and his legal professionals have claimed that the martial regulation declaration was supposed as a short lived and “peaceable” warning to the liberal opposition, which he accuses of obstructing his agenda with its legislative majority. Yoon says the troops despatched to the Nationwide Election Fee places of work had been to research election fraud allegations, which stays unsubstantiated in South Korea.
Yoon has harassed he had no intention of stopping the functioning of the legislature. He said that the troops had been despatched there to take care of order, not forestall lawmakers from coming into and voting to raise martial regulation. He denied allegations that he ordered the arrests of key politicians and election officers.
Navy commanders, nonetheless, have described a deliberate try and seize the legislature that was thwarted by tons of of civilians and legislative workers who helped lawmakers enter the meeting, and by the troops’ reluctance or refusal to observe Yoon’s orders.
If prosecutors indict Yoon on revolt and abuse of energy prices, that are the allegations now being examined by investigators, they may preserve him in custody for as much as six months earlier than trial.
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If the primary courtroom convicts him and points a jail time period, Yoon would serve that sentence because the case presumably strikes as much as the Seoul Excessive Courtroom and Supreme Courtroom. Underneath South Korean regulation, orchestrating a revolt is punishable by life imprisonment or the demise penalty.
