Impeached South Korean President Yoon avoids arrest by deadline, extension sought

SEOUL: Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol evaded arrest after a warrant´s on Monday deadline passed, but anti-graft investigators asked for more time to enforce his detention.

The former star prosecutor has defiantly refused questioning three times over a bungled martial law decree last month and remained holed up in his residence surrounded by hundreds of guards preventing his arrest.

Investigators said they sought a fresh warrant that expired at the end of Monday (1500 GMT), and earlier asked for support from the police, which said the force would help and may arrest anyone shielding Yoon.

“The Joint Investigation Headquarters today refiled a warrant with the Seoul Western District Court to extend the arrest warrant for defendant Yoon,” the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) said in a statement late Monday.

“Details regarding the validity period cannot be disclosed.” The court has not announced its decision on the new warrant request but CIO deputy director Lee Jae-seung told reporters before it was filed that the likelihood for the court not to grant an extension was “very low”.

Officials have sought more time and help because of the difficulties they have faced, including being met by hundreds of security forces when they entered Yoon´s presidential compound on Friday.

“We will consider the option of arresting any personnel from the Presidential Security Service during the execution of the second warrant”, a police official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The opposition Democratic Party has also called for the dissolution of the security service protecting the impeached president. If authorities detain Yoon, who has already been suspended from duty by lawmakers, he would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.

But they would only have 48 hours to either request another arrest warrant, in order to keep him in detention, or be forced to release him. While officials have been unable to get to Yoon, the joint investigation team has gone after top military officials behind the martial law plan.

The prosecution´s martial law special investigation unit on Monday indicted Defence Intelligence Commander Moon Sang-ho on charges of playing an integral role in an insurrection and abuse of power.

Yoon would face prison or, at worst, the death penalty if convicted for insurrection over briefly suspending civilian rule and plunging South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades. But both he and his supporters have remained defiant.