South Korea’s Yoon refuses questioning as authorities seek longer detention | Politics News
The anti-corruption agency says it will ask the court to extend the impeached president’s detention for up to 20 days.
South Korean anti-corruption investigators said they would seek an order to extend President Yoon Suk-yeol’s detention after the impeached leader again refused to submit to questioning over his short-lived declaration of martial law.
South Korea’s Corruption Perceptions Office (CIO) said on Friday that it would ask the court to approve an extension of Yoon’s detention for up to 20 days.
On Wednesday, Yoon became the first sitting president to be detained in South Korea’s history after investigators raided his residence in Seoul.
Under the terms of the warrant executed on Wednesday, investigators were given the power to detain the militant leader for up to 48 hours.
The Seoul Central District Court on Thursday rejected a request by Yoon’s lawyers challenging the legality of his arrest, which followed weeks of clashes between investigators and presidential security at his compound.
Yoon, who was suspended from office after being impeached on Dec. 14, is under investigation for crimes including sedition, which are punishable by life in prison or the death penalty, although South Korea has a long-standing moratorium on executions.
Yoon’s future in office is separately under review by the Constitutional Court, which has 180 days to decide whether the National Assembly supports his impeachment.
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok is currently acting president, after Yoon’s first successor, Han Duck-soo, was also impeached for refusing to immediately fill three vacancies on the Constitutional Court.
Yoon’s legal team, which called his arrest illegal, said the president saw no reason to answer questions.
“The president will not appear at the CIO today. He sufficiently expressed his basic position to the investigators on the first day,” Yoon’s lawyer Seok Dong-hyeon told reporters.
Despite Yoon’s legal problems, the conservative leader’s People Power Party (PPP) has surged in the polls amid deep divisions over the handling of his arrest.
In a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, the PPP ranked more popular than the main opposition Democratic Party for the first time since August, winning the support of 39 percent of respondents compared to 36 percent for its leftist rival.
