Law enforcement officials stand guard as supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attempt to enter the Seoul Western District Courtroom in Seoul on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025.
Ahn Younger-joon/AP
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Ahn Younger-joon/AP
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 for him, 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 principal door and home windows. They used plastic chairs and police shields that they managed to wrestle away from officers. Some bought inside a hallway and have been seen throwing objects and utilizing hearth extinguishers.
A whole lot of law enforcement officials have been deployed to suppress the riot on the courtroom. Dozens of individuals have been arrested on-site, whereas some injured law enforcement officials have been seen being handled at ambulance vans. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not any courtroom workers have been injured.
Following an hourlong deliberation, the courtroom granted regulation enforcement’s request for an arrest warrant on Yoon, seeing him as a risk to destroy proof. Yoon and his attorneys on Saturday appeared earlier than the courtroom’s decide throughout a listening to and argued for his launch.
Yoon, who has been in detention since he was apprehended Wednesday in a large regulation enforcement operation at his residential compound, faces potential insurrection expenses linked to his declaration of martial regulation on Dec. 3, which set off the nation’s most severe political disaster since its democratization within the late Eighties.
The Corruption Investigation Workplace for Excessive-Rating Officers, which is main a joint investigation with police and the army, can now prolong Yoon’s detention to twenty days, throughout which they’ll switch the case to public prosecutors for indictment.
Yoon’s attorneys 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 hundreds of his fervent supporters rallied for hours calling for his launch. Even earlier than the courtroom issued a 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 to strategy the courtroom. Not less than two autos carrying anti-corruption investigators have been broken as they left the courtroom after arguing for Yoon’s arrest.
Yoon’s attorneys mentioned he spoke for about 40 minutes to the decide in the course of the practically five-hour closed-door listening to on Saturday. His authorized workforce and anti-corruption companies introduced opposing arguments about whether or not he needs to be held in custody. The attorneys didn’t share his particular feedback.
Following the listening to, Yoon was transported again to the detention middle, the place he awaited the choice. Neither Yoon nor his attorneys instantly commented on the arrest warrant.
Chaotic scenes outdoors the courtroom
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 choice.
The motorcade entered the courtroom’s basement parking house as hundreds of Yoon’s supporters gathered in close by streets regardless of a heavy police presence. Some protesters broke by way of the police traces and tapped on the home windows of his van approaching the courtroom. Yoon didn’t communicate to reporters.
After its investigators have been attacked by protesters afterward Saturday, the anti-corruption company requested media firms to obscure the faces of its members attending the listening to.
Yoon insists his martial regulation decree was professional
Yoon Kab-keun, one of many president’s attorneys, mentioned the president deliberate to argue to the decide that his decree was a professional train of his powers and that accusations of insurrection wouldn’t maintain up earlier than a felony courtroom or the Constitutional Courtroom, which is reviewing whether or not to formally take away him from workplace or reinstate him.
Yoon’s protection minister, police chief, and several other high army commanders have already been arrested and indicted for his or her roles within the enforcement of martial regulation.
The disaster started when Yoon, in an try to interrupt by way of legislative gridlock, imposed army 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 way of a blockade voted to raise the measure. The opposition-dominated meeting voted to question him on Dec. 14.
If prosecutors indict Yoon on insurrection and abuse of energy expenses, that are the allegations now being examined by investigators, they may maintain him in custody for as much as six months earlier than trial.
Below South Korean regulation, orchestrating a insurrection is punishable by life imprisonment or the demise penalty.
Yoon’s attorneys have argued that there is no such thing as a must detain him in the course of the investigation, saying he does not pose a risk to flee or destroy proof.
Investigators reply that Yoon ignored a number of requests to seem for questioning, and that the presidential safety service blocked an try to detain him on Jan. 3. His defiance has raised issues about whether or not he would adjust to felony courtroom proceedings if he is not underneath arrest.
