Seoul: South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attended a hearing at a Seoul court on Saturday to oppose his potential formal arrest over his short-lived martial law decree last month, his lawyers said.
Yoon has been in custody since his arrest on Wednesday at his residence on charges of masterminding an insurrection and abuse of power, making him the first sitting South Korean president to be apprehended.
The hearing at the Seoul Western District Court comes a day after the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO), leading a joint investigation with police and the military, requested the court to issue a warrant for Yoon’s formal arrest.
Yoon was transported from the detention center in Uiwang, about 20 kilometres south of Seoul, in a blue van escorted by police and the Presidential Security Service.
The convoy bypassed the designated photo area for the media and entered the court building directly, while thousands of supporters gathered nearby, waving South Korean and US flags and chanting Yoon’s name in a display of solidarity.
Yoon chose to attend the court hearing to explain the legitimacy of the martial law imposition and restore his tarnished reputation, his lawyer Yoon Gap-keun said in a message sent to reporters.
Since his detention, Yoon has refused to appear for questioning over his martial law bid. The declaration, made on December 3, shocked the nation and plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades. However, the martial law lasted only a few hours before lawmakers voted to lift the measure, Yonhap news agency reported.
During the hearing that began at 2 p.m., Yoon is expected to flatly deny the insurrection charges against him. He is also expected to argue there is no need to arrest him as investigators have already secured much of the evidence required for an investigation and there is no flight risk for Yoon as he is the sitting president.
His lawyers have said the martial law bid was an act of governance and cannot be subject to a court judgment as it was implemented to overcome a national crisis caused by the opposition-led impeachments of Cabinet members, gridlock in legislation and unilateral budget reduction.
Yoon’s presidential powers were suspended after the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him December 14.
On Wednesday, Yoon’s legal team requested the Seoul Central District Court to decide on the legality of the detention warrant for Yoon issued by the Western District Court.
But the central court dismissed the challenge the following day, keeping him in custody.
Despite the ruling, Yoon’s legal team is expected to maintain its argument that the CIO has no legal authority to investigate insurrection charges and that the western court does not have proper jurisdiction over the martial law case.
The judge at the Seoul Western District Court is expected to make a decision as early as late Saturday or early Sunday.
If court officials issue the warrant, Yoon will become the first sitting president in South Korea’s constitutional history to be formally arrested.
Yoon’s formal arrest will allow investigators to extend his detention to 20 days, during which they will transfer the case to prosecutors for an indictment.
If rejected, the embattled president will be released and return to his residence and bolster his claims that the ongoing investigations into his martial law decree and impeachment are unfounded.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court is deliberating whether to remove Yoon from office by upholding the parliament’s impeachment decision or reinstate him.
(IANS)
