Seoul: Around 30 ruling party lawmakers of South Korea gathered near the presidential residence to rally against investigators’ efforts to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday.
Last Friday, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), handling the probe on Yoon’s short-lived martial law imposition, attempted to detain Yoon at his official residence but called it off after an hourslong standoff with the Presidential Security Service.
“The CIO is pretending as if it has the right to exercise the authority over investigations when it does not have the rights,” Kim Gi-hyeon of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) said during the rally.
PPP Reps. Yoon Sang-hyun, Cho Bae-sook, Park Dae-chul and Kim Seok-ki were among the participants.
The CIO has asked the police to take over the execution of the warrant, Yonhap news agency reported.
Yoon has refused to cooperate with the CIO’s summonses for questioning or warrant execution as the agency is not technically authorised to investigate charges of insurrection that he faces over his brief imposition of martial law on December 3.
The PPP’s interim leader, Kwon Young-se, also stressed that the CIO has no right to “subcontract” investigations to the police.
“The warrant itself is problematic because the CIO does not have the authority to investigate (insurrection charges), and it has no authority to subcontract it to the police,” Kwon told reporters after a party meeting at the National Assembly.
Earlier in the day, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s legal defence team filed complaints with the prosecution against the head of the state anti-corruption agency and 10 others over last week’s attempt to execute a warrant to detain the impeached president.
An attempt by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) to carry out the warrant for Yoon’s detention failed last Friday after an hourslong standoff with security staff at the presidential residence in central Seoul.
Yoon’s lawyers submitted complaints against Oh Dong-woon, head of the CIO, and others to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, claiming the CIO illegally executed warrants to detain Yoon and search his residence.
The legal team argued the CIO had no authority to mobilise police officials for the attempt.
The team also filed complaints against acting National Police Agency Commissioner-General Lee Ho-young and acting Defence Minister Kim Seon-ho, accusing them of dereliction of duty and abuse of power for refusing the presidential security service’s request for more security personnel.
On Sunday, Yoon’s lawyers said they would file complaints against all police and defence ministry personnel involved in the execution of the warrants. They plan to file more complaints once they confirm the details of those involved.
(IANS)
