Seoul: Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol resisted a special counsel team’s attempt to execute detention warrants against him last month, according to surveillance footage reviewed by lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the minor Rebuilding Korea Party on Monday.
Lawmakers on the parliamentary legislation and judiciary committee, along with members of the party’s special committee on three ongoing special counsel probes, visited the Seoul Detention Center to review closed-circuit television footage of Yoon’s resistance when special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team failed to execute the warrant against him on August 7, following an earlier attempt on August 1, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Investigators at the time said Yoon refused to comply by lying on the floor of his prison cell.
“It is true that he refused the execution of the arrest warrant while dressed only in his underwear during both the first and second attempts,” DP Representative Kim Yong-min told reporters after viewing the footage.
The footage also showed that Yoon’s claims that he was injured during the second attempt were not true, according to Kim.
Parliamentary officials also said Yoon reportedly rejected the special counsel’s attempt, claiming himself to be a detainee “presumed innocent.”
Prison guards attempted to move Yoon while he was seated on a chair but gave up as he continued to resist, they said.
Representative Jeon Hyun-heui, who chairs the special committee, said the lawmakers will check for any illegalities or preferential treatment in the process, stressing that the purpose of the visit was not intended to humiliate Yoon but to ensure that such “absurd privileges” are not granted.
The lawmakers’ visit comes after the judiciary committee passed a motion authorizing an on-site inspection of the detention center last week.
The committee reportedly has no plans to disclose the footage to the public.
Yoon has been standing trial on charges of leading an insurrection and abusing his power through his failed martial law bid in December.
(IANS)
