AMN / WEB DESK
South Korean authorities detained impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol early Wednesday, the country’s anti-corruption agency announced, following a tense, five-hour standoff at his heavily guarded mountain compound in Seoul.
Yoon faces charges of insurrection over his brief declaration of martial law in December. This is the first time in South Korean history that a sitting president has been detained.
Yoon is being questioned at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency says questioning is being conducted in a room with video-recording equipment but Yoon is refusing to speak or be filmed. Reports say that a rest space with a sofa has been set up in front of the investigation room, and meals for Yoon may be delivered to him.
Yoon remained defiant as he was taken in for questioning. He said: “I cannot help but feel disappointed to see that the investigators are pushing ahead with an invalid detention warrant. But I have decided to accept the request, despite it being an illegal investigation, to prevent bloodshed as investigators forced their way into the residence. But I stand against this investigation.”
Yoon relented after about 1,000 officers reportedly swarmed his residence Wednesday morning, bypassing barricades by using ladders.
Yoon’s lawyers said in a statement that he instructed them to negotiate with investigators in his presence voluntarily. They added that they ask people in the country “to become his attorneys and face off against forces with North Korea’s ideology and anti-government powers to reorganize freedom, democracy and nomocracy together.”
There were no reports of clashes with presidential security. Yoon’s protection detail blocked a previous attempt to detain him earlier this month.
Yonhap News Agency has reported Yoon may be put into a solitary cell of around 10 square meters in a detention center about 3 kilometers from the investigation office.
Officials are reportedly discussing how to protect him and other issues, as there is no precedent that an incumbent president has been detained and placed in a detention center.
South Korean law stipulates that the detention warrant allows authorities to hold the president in custody for up to 48 hours.
If they want to continue detaining the president exceeding this limit, they must ask a court for an arrest warrant. If they gain it, they can detain him for up to 20 days. If the court rejects the issuance, Yoon will be released.