Seoul: Prosecutors said President Yoon Suk Yeol did not comply with their summons for Sunday and added they will soon issue another order.
The special prosecution team handling an investigation into Yoon’s botched martial law imposition said it had sent a summons to Yoon last Wednesday, asking him to appear at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office for questioning at 10 a.m. Sunday. Yoon did not show up, Yonhap news agency reported.
Prosecutors plan to send their second summons to Yoon on Monday. He is the first president to be summoned by prosecutors while in office, with four former presidents having faced questioning after they had served their terms and, in the case of Park Geun-hye in 2017, after she had been impeached and removed from office.
A prosecution official said the summons was sent to Yoon’s office and that the prosecution had confirmed its delivery.
However, the official declined to confirm whether Yoon had provided any reasons for not complying with the summons.
According to legal sources, Yoon told prosecutors that he could not appear for questioning because he had not yet hired legal representatives.
Yoon is believed to have sought counsel from his former prosecutor colleague Kim Hong-il, one-time head of the broadcasting watchdog Korea Communications Commission, and other legal experts with ties to the president.
In a televised public address last Thursday, Yoon defended his martial law declaration as an act of governance, saying he used his presidential power to protect the country against the opposition that paralyzed the government. He also claimed his action was not subject to legal judgment and that he would put up a fight whether he’d be impeached or investigated.
If Yoon snubs the second summons, prosecutors may attempt to arrest him. Under criminal law, prosecutors may be issued an arrest warrant if there are reasonable grounds to believe a suspect has committed a crime and the suspect has not complied with a summons without a valid reason.
The prosecution official said he would not discuss the possibility of an arrest for Yoon at the moment and that prosecutors would follow due process.
Yoon is accused of abusing his power to declare martial law for unconstitutional and unlawful purposes and to order military commanders to dispatch troops to the National Assembly and arrest key political figures.
With investigators trying to determine whether Yoon had staged an insurrection, the suspended president is under a travel ban.
Yoon was impeached in a parliamentary vote on Saturday, 11 days after he had declared martial law, only to have it rejected by the National Assembly hours later.
He has been suspended from his duties until the Constitutional Court decides whether to reinstate him or remove him from office. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is serving as acting president.
Prosecutors and police have also been questioning military commanders in connection with the martial law decree.
Among those commanders, Capital Defense Commander Lt. Gen. Lee Jin-woo and Army Special Warfare Commander Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-keun have both testified that Yoon had ordered them to “drag out” lawmakers inside the parliament building to keep them from repealing the martial law order in the early hours of December 4.
(IANS)
