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Joint investigation unit requests arrest warrant for suspended president over brief imposition of martial law.
South Korean authorities have requested an arrest warrant for suspended President Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived declaration of martial law.
South Korea’s Joint Investigation Headquarters said on Monday that it sought Yoon’s arrest on insurrection and abuse of power charges.
The joint investigative team, comprised of officials from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), the police and the Ministry of Defence, said it sought the arrest warrant after the impeached leader ignored three summonses to appear for questioning.
A court will decide whether to issue a warrant following the request to detain Yoon, which would be a first in South Korean history.
Yun Gap-geun, a lawyer for Yoon, told the state-funded Yonhap News Agency that the COI was acting beyond its authority and he would take “formal steps” in response.
Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law on December 3 stunned South Korea, plunging the East Asian nation into its biggest political crisis in decades.
Yoon has been suspended from his duties since December 14, when the National Assembly voted for his impeachment in a 204-85 vote.
The conservative leader, who served as the country’s top-ranking prosecutor before entering politics, is facing criminal charges of insurrection, a crime punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Yoon has defended his brief martial law declaration as a legal and necessary act, citing the threat of “anti-state forces” and obstructionism by the opposition Democratic Party (DP).
The country’s leadership crisis intensified on Friday after the opposition-controlled legislature voted to also impeach acting president Han Duck-soo, handing presidential authority to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok.
The DP and several minor opposition parties voted to impeach Han after he refused to immediately appoint three justices to fill vacancies on the Constitutional Court, which is deliberating whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment.
The court has up to six months to make its decision, after which Yoon will either be removed from office or restored to the presidency.
At its first preparatory hearing on Friday, the court denied a request by Yoon’s lawyers for a postponement in proceedings to allow the South Korean leader to better prepare his case.
