South Korean anticorruption investigators have said they will seek a warrant to extend the detention of President Yoon Suk-yeol after the impeached leader again refused to undergo questioning over his short-lived declaration of martial law.
South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said on Friday it would ask a court to approve an extension of Yoon’s detention by up to 20 days.
Yoon on Wednesday became the first sitting president to be taken into custody in South Korea’s history after investigators carried out a dawn raid on his residence in Seoul.
Under the terms of the warrant executed on Wednesday, investigators were granted the authority to hold the embattled leader for up to 48 hours.
Seoul Central District Court on Thursday dismissed a motion from Yoon’s lawyers challenging the legality of his arrest, which followed a weeks-long standoff between investigators and presidential security at his compound.
Yoon, who has been suspended from office since his impeachment on December 14, is under investigation for offences including insurrection, which is punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty, though South Korea has a longstanding moratorium on executions.
Yoon’s future in office is separately under review by the Constitutional Court, which has 180 days to decide whether to uphold his impeachment by the National Assembly.
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok is currently serving as acting president, after Yoon’s initial successor, Han Duck-soo, was also impeached over his refusal to immediately fill three vacancies on the Constitutional Court.
Yoon’s legal team, which has called his arrest illegal, said the president saw no reason to answer questions.
“The president will not appear at the CIO today. He has sufficiently expressed his basic stance to the investigators on the first day,” Yoon’s lawyer, Seok Dong-hyeon, told reporters.
Despite Yoon’s legal woes, the conservative leader’s People Power Party (PPP) has risen in the polls amid deep divisions over the handling of his arrest.
In a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, the PPP ranked as more popular than the main opposition Democratic Party for the first time since August, garnering the approval of 39 percent of respondents compared with 36 percent for its left-leaning rival.
