South Korea: Ex-Prez Yoon appears for special counsel questioning over martial law bid
Seoul, June 28 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) South Korea’s former President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared for questioning by a special counsel team on Saturday over insurrection charges related to his December 3 martial law declaration.
Yoon arrived at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office in southern Seoul at 9:56 a.m. (local time), two weeks after the special counsel probe was launched and just 85 days after his impeachment. The formal questioning began at 10:14 a.m.
This marked the ousted president’s first appearance before an investigative body in about five months, followed by his arrest and questioning by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) in January.
Earlier this week, Cho’s team demanded that Yoon appear in public at its office in the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office in southern Seoul to be questioned as a suspect after a court rejected its detention warrant request for him.
In addition to his insurrection charges in connection with the failed martial law bid, Yoon is accused of ordering the Presidential Security Service (PSS) to block his arrest when the CIO attempted to execute a warrant in January, and directing the PSS to delete classified data involving top military commanders after the martial law declaration.
Yoon arrived through the main entrance in a black van and walked up to the entrance, expressionless and without answering reporters’ questions. Earlier, Yoon’s team had requested that he be allowed to enter privately through the underground parking lot, but the request was denied, reports Yonhap news agency.
Shortly after his arrival, Yoon’s legal team issued a statement strongly condemning the special counsel team, accusing it of staging a “political show” pertaining to the summoning of the former president.
“(The special counsel team) must not unilaterally notify the suspect or publicly expose the suspect’s appearance in a way that infringes on their rights,” it said.
It marked the first time Yoon was questioned inside the prosecutors’ office where he once served as a prosecutor and where he himself led a special counsel team investigating former President Park Geun-hye’s influence-peddling scandal.
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