SEOUL: South Korean anti-graft investigators were waiting on Tuesday (Jan 7) for a new court-ordered arrest warrant for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose failed martial law bid threw the country into turmoil.
The former star prosecutor has refused questioning three times over a bungled martial law decree last month and is holed up in his residence surrounded by hundreds of guards preventing his arrest.
It is likely a new warrant will be granted by the same court that issued the first order, which expired after seven days, but investigators refused to disclose the duration of the new warrant they were seeking.
“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 on Monday.
“Details regarding the validity period cannot be disclosed.”
There was no comment by investigators or the Seoul court on the new warrant being approved by Tuesday morning.
However, CIO deputy director Lee Jae-seung told reporters on Tuesday before it was refiled that the likelihood the court would not grant an extension was “very low”.
Yoon is being investigated on charges of “insurrection” and, if formally arrested and convicted, faces prison or, at worst, the death penalty. His failed martial law decree plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.
He would also become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.
His lawyers repeatedly said the initial warrant was “unlawful” and “illegal”, pledging to take further legal action against it.
