SEOUL: South Korea’s presidential guards and military troops prevented authorities from arresting impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday in a tense six-hour stand-off inside Yoon’s compound in the heart of Seoul.
“It was judged that it was virtually impossible to execute the arrest warrant due to the ongoing stand-off,” the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said in a statement.
CIO officials and police evaded hundreds of Yoon supporters who gathered in pre-dawn hours near his residence on Friday, who adopted the “Stop the Steal” slogans popularised by US President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters, to block the arrest.
Officials from the CIO, which is leading a joint team of investigators, arrived at the gates of the presidential compound shortly after 7 am (2200 GMT Thursday) and entered on foot.
Once inside the compound, the CIO and police were outnumbered by cordons of Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel, as well as troops seconded to presidential security, a CIO official told reporters.
More than 200 PSS agents and soldiers blocked the CIO officers and police, he added. While there were altercations and PSS agents appeared to be carrying firearms, no weapons were drawn, he said.
Yoon, who has been isolated since he was impeached and suspended from power on Dec 14, was not seen during the stand-off, he said.
South Korea’s defence ministry said the troops involved were under the control of the PSS.
The CIO called off the effort to arrest Yoon around 1:30 pm due to concerns over the safety of its personnel, and said it “deeply regretted” Yoon’s non-compliance.
The CIO said it would consider its next steps. The police, who are part of the joint investigation team, have designated the PSS chief and the deputy as suspects in a criminal case for obstruction of official duty and issued summons for them to appear for questioning on Saturday, Yonhap news reported.
Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. Yoon’s arrest warrant, approved by a court on Tuesday after he ignored multiple summons to appear for questioning, is viable until Jan. 6. In a statement after the arrest effort was suspended, Yoon’s legal team said the CIO had no authority to investigate insurrection and it was regrettable that it had tried to execute an illegal warrant in a sensitive security area. The statement warned police against supporting the arrest effort. The presidential office filed a criminal complaint against three broadcasters and YouTube channel owners for unauthorised filming of the presidential residence, which it said was “a secured facility directly linked to national security”. The current warrant gives investigators only 48 hours to hold Yoon after he is arrested. Investigators must then decide whether to request a detention warrant or release him.
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