According to reports, investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office and personnel of the “security service” are engaged in a heated confrontation at the home of President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was impeached.
Following an earlier confrontation with a military unit, Yonhap News Agency has claimed that “security service” members are confronting South Korean investigators who are attempting to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk-Yeol at his home.
Police officers and investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office tried to carry out their warrant to arrest Yoon early Friday by breaking into his home.
For the first time in the nation’s history, investigators started carrying out a warrant for Yoon’s arrest in connection with his unsuccessful attempt to impose martial law.
The suspended president now faces arrest, imprisonment, or perhaps the death penalty for his ill-advised December 3 announcement that rocked the thriving East Asian democracy and momentarily threw it hack to the gloomy days of military control.
The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which is looking into Yoon’s brief proclamation of martial law, announced that “the execution of the arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk-yeol has begun”, after seeing its officials and police entering the president’s home.
Heavy security barricades allowed CIO investigators, including senior prosecutor Lee Dae-hwan, to enter the house and try to carry out their warrant to arrest Yoon.
“Blocked by a military unit inside” once they entered, however, according to the Yonhap.
Yoon’s defense team challenges the arrest warrant
Although it was unclear at first which unit had impeded investigators on Friday, Members of his security team have before prevented attempted police raids of the presidential mansion.
Yoon’s legal team vowed to pursue additional legal action against the move and denounced the attempt to carry out the arrest warrant.
“It is not legal to execute a warrant that is illegal and invalid”, Yoon Kap-keun, Yoon’s attorney, stated.
Outside the central Seoul compound, the street was lined with hundreds of uniformed police officers and dozens of police buses.
Following Thursday, scuffle between Yoon’s supporters and anti-Yoon protestors, Yonhap reported that over 2,700 police and 135 police buses had been sent to the region to avert conflicts.
