Yoon Suk Yeol, the impeached president of South Korea, was called to answer questions about his proposal for martial law, but he did not show up before the nation’s corruption watchdog on Wednesday, it claimed.
Following his brief proclamation of martial law on December 3, which sent the nation into its worst political unrest in decades, Yoon was relieved of his duties by parliament over the weekend.
At 10:00 am (0100 GMT), he was called to the Corruption Investigation Office’s (CIO) suburban Seoul facility to be questioned by investigators about allegations of mutiny and power abuse.
“President Yoon did not appear for his summons today,” a CIO official told AFP.
According to Yonhap news agency, Yoon’s legal team declared on Tuesday that he did not conduct insurrection and that he will defend the case in court.
Seok Dong-hyeon of Yoon’s team was cited as saying, “We will cooperate with the investigation even though we do not believe the insurrection charges to be legally valid.”
A summons was sent to Yoon, but it was returned “undelivered” after an unnamed individual at the presidential office declined to accept it, the CIO said this week.
According to a CIO statement, Yoon’s absence on Wednesday “will be considered as a failure to comply with the first summons.”
CIO chief Oh Dong-woon said lawmakers on Tuesday that they were also “reviewing” whether to issue an arrest warrant, despite investigators stating they were thinking about sending a second summons.
Prosecutors in South Korea, along with a team of police, defense ministry, and anti-corruption investigators, are looking into Yoon.
According to the Yonhap news agency on Wednesday, “the joint investigation team’s attempt to raid a computer server” at the presidential compound was thwarted by the Presidential Security Services.
If found guilty, Yoon and a few members of his inner circle might be sentenced to life in prison or even the death penalty. He is still prohibited from traveling abroad.
The Constitutional Court of South Korea is separately considering whether to sustain Yoon’s impeachment, having started procedures against him on Monday.
The martial law declaration Yoon signed two weeks ago, together with the minutes of cabinet meetings that took place immediately before and after the announcement, were ordered to be submitted by the court on Wednesday.
Although Yoon is not obligated to attend, a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for December 27. The judges have roughly six months to make a decision in Yoon’s case.
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