Authorities are now seeking an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol , as he shunned a third summons for questioning with regard to his brief imposition of martial law.
Our correspondent Kim Do-yeon covers this unprecedented event.
For the first time ever, an arrest warrant is being reviewed for a sitting president.
The warrant was requested on Monday by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials who are investigating the criminal allegations behind President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law on December 3rd.
This was an expected move by the investigation team as President Yoon, for the third time, refused to show up for a questioning session on Sunday and generally after three tries, an investigation team requests an arrest warrant.
According to the joint investigation team made of the CIO and police two charges were stated on the arrest warrant request.
One for leading an insurrection, and the other for abusing authority to obstruct someone from exercising their rights.
The court will now decide whether to issue the arrest warrant or not after considering whether President Yoon’s charges, including insurrection, have probable cause and whether he failed to comply with the CIO’s summons without a valid reason.
Meanwhile, Yoon’s legal representative submitted a letter of opinion to the court in response to the CIO’s decision.
Addressing the public, an attorney for Yoon said the CIO does not have the authority to investigate insurrection charges.
First, the arrest warrant is unjust as it was requested by an unauthorized institution. Moreover, it does not meet the requirements for an arrest warrant under our Criminal Procedure Act. That’s the core issue.
And in terms of the abuse of power charge he first said a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for an abuse of power, according to law.
While the general opinion could be divided on that the legal community generally agrees that an investigation must be minimal for this.
He also said that declaring martial law is a constitutional authority granted to the president, and the primary discretion to exercise that authority also lies with the president claiming once again that an insurrection charge makes no sense.
Kim Do-yeon, Arirang News.
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=279467
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