The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeolwas detained Wednesday for questioning over his failed declaration of martial law early last month, and after a tense and prolonged siege by the authorities of the residence where he remained entrenched.
Today is the bizarre latest episode to date of the deep political crisis that the country is going through since Yoon decided to declare martial law by surprise 43 days ago, accusing the opposition, which has a parliamentary majority, of acting as “forces “pro-North Koreans.”
Yoon’s arrest is the first in the country’s history of a sitting president. although the conservative president was disqualified on December 14 by the national Parliament, when the motion put in place by the opposition after the state of emergency declared by the president was carried out.
Five hours of siege of the presidential residence
The operation to try to arrest Yoon began to prepare at 3:20 in the morning local and, before dawn in Seoul, some 3,200 police officers and dozens of officials from the Office for Senior Corruption Cases Officials (CIO) and other organizations were deployed in the presidential residence.
Such a deployment was intended to deal with the Presidential Security Service (PSS), a body independent of other national law enforcement forces and which responds directly to the president. and that he had already managed to block a previous arrest attempt on the 3rd in another tense confrontation with the authorities that also lasted several hours.
The police force also had fifty riot police officers in front of the more than 6 thousand supporters of Yoon who gathered around the official residence with the idea of physically preventing access to the premises located in Yongsan, in the center of Seoul.
At 5:10, police officers and the state prosecutor’s office presented the arrest warrant for the president issued by a court to the presidential security service that protects the premises.
During the next two hours, there were moments of greatest chaos when Several attempts to enter the presidential complex were blocked by human chains formed by the PSS, the barricades of vehicles and barbed wire placed by that service and by parliamentarians from Yoon’s ruling party, all while protests by the president’s supporters intensified in the surrounding area.
After 7:00 in the morning, the police managed to enter the premises using portable ladders to overcome its fences and went beyond other security perimeters until entering the main building of the residence, where negotiations with Yoon’s legal team began. and the PSS.
Yoon He was finally arrested at 10:33 after his legal team announced that he agreed to appear before the office anti-corruption. The president had refused to attend previous calls to testify before this body, which led to the arrest warrant issued by a court.
He does not testify during his interrogation but defends his martial law through the networks
Already in the custody of the authorities, Yoon He refused to testify during the first two and a half hours of his interrogation at the headquarters of the CIO in Gwacheon, south of the capital, according to an official from that agency.
However, while the interrogation was taking place, the president’s official profile on social media published a handwritten letter from him in which he defended his declaration of martial law, a measure that he said “is not a crime, but an exercise of presidential authority to overcome a crisis”.
Shortly before, another video message from him had been published in which he stated that he had decided to appear before the authorities to avoid potential “bloodshed” and despite it being an “illegal investigation.”
The anti-corruption bureau has 48 hours to question Yoon and can request an order to extend the detention. The still president is expected to remain detained at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, near the CIO headquarters.
Yoon He is investigated for an alleged crime of insurrection linked to his declaration of martial law, the only one from which a South Korean president is not immune, as well as for abuse of power.
If found guilty of insurrection, the conservative leader, who has been banned from leaving the country, He could face a life sentence or even capital punishment, although there has been a moratorium on the latter in the country for almost 40 years.
In parallel to the criminal investigation for which he was arrested today, the Constitutional Court He has another procedure open in which he must decide before mid-June whether Yoon’s disqualification is definitive or if, on the contrary, he is reinstated in office.