Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared set to evade arrest ahead of a Monday night deadline after anti-graft investigators asked for more time to enforce a warrant.
The former star prosecutor has defiantly refused questioning three times over a bungled martial law decree last month and remained holed up in his residence surrounded by hundreds of guards preventing his arrest.
Anti-graft investigators sought an extension to the warrant that expires at the end of Monday (1500 GMT) and asked for support from the police, which said the force would help investigators and could arrest anyone shielding Yoon.
“The validity of the warrant expires today. We plan to request an extension from the court today,” said CIO deputy director Lee Jae-seung, whose authority has been refuted by Yoon’s lawyers.
The investigators have sought more time and help because of the difficulties they have faced, including being met by hundreds of security forces when they entered Yoon’s presidential compound on Friday.
“We will consider the option of arresting any personnel from the Presidential Security Service during the execution of the second warrant”, a police official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.
The country’s opposition Democratic Party has also called for the dissolution of the security service protecting the impeached president.
If authorities detain Yoon, who has already been suspended from duty by lawmakers, he would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.
But they would only have 48 hours to either request another arrest warrant, to keep him in detention, or be forced to release him.
Investigators can apply for a new warrant if the one which expires at midnight lapses without an extension being granted.
– ‘Come again’ –
Yoon would then face prison or, at worst, the death penalty if convicted for insurrection over briefly suspending civilian rule and plunging South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.
But both he and his supporters have remained defiant.
“The Presidential Security Service will protect the President, and we will protect the Presidential Security Service till midnight”, said Kim Soo-yong, 62, one of the protest organisers.
“If they get another warrant, we will come again.”
Under the fog of dawn, dozens of Yoon’s lawmakers from the People Power Party turned up in front of his presidential residence and police blocked roads.
“I’ve been here longer than the CIO now. It doesn’t make sense why they can’t do it. They need to arrest him immediately,” said anti-Yoon protest organiser Kim Ah-young, in her 30s.
The initial warrant was issued on the grounds that Yoon has refused to emerge for questioning over his martial law decree.
His lawyers have repeatedly said the warrant is “unlawful” and “illegal”, pledging to take further legal action against it.
The vibrant East Asian democracy will find itself in uncharted territory either way — its sitting president will have been arrested, or he would have evaded court-ordered detention.
– Blinken in town –
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Seoul early Monday, and was not scheduled to meet Yoon but held a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul.
He praised Seoul’s democratic resilience but his focus was shifted away from domestic politics when North Korea fired what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile into the sea as he met Cho.
A prosecutors’ report for his former defence minister seen by AFP Sunday showed Yoon ignored the objections of key cabinet ministers before his failed martial law bid, evidence the court may take into account.
It said the country’s then prime minister, foreign minister and finance minister all expressed reservations about the potential economic and diplomatic fallout in a cabinet meeting on the night of the decision.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court has slated January 14 for the start of Yoon’s impeachment trial, which if he does not attend would continue in his absence.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss Yoon as president or restore his powers.
Former presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye never appeared for their impeachment trials.
hj-hs/jfx/rsc
