Yoon becomes first incumbent president to be indicted

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Yoon becomes first incumbent president to be indicted

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President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the fourth hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Jan. 23. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the fourth hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Jan. 23. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

 
The state prosecution service indicted President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday evening on charges of masterminding an insurrection and abusing his authority over his short-lived imposition of martial law last month.

The decision makes Yoon the first Korean president to be indicted while still in office.

The indictment was announced after the country’s senior prosecutors spent three hours in the afternoon deliberating whether to indict Yoon, who also happens to be a former prosecutor general. 

Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung’s meeting with the chiefs of the prosecution’s regional offices took place as the expiry of Yoon’s arrest warrant loomed with no possibility of an extension.

 
As prosecutors filed the indictment before the warrant expired, Yoon will remain in detention for the time being.
 
Over a three-hour meeting at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho District, southern Seoul, Shim listened to the opinions of other senior prosecutors before reaching his decision.
 

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Park Se-hyun, who is leading the prosecution’s special investigative team working on the case, told reporters after the meeting that Shim heard various opinions regarding how the service should proceed regarding Yoon.
 
Park said the prosecutor general would make his decision “after taking all opinions into account.”
 
Though prosecutors sought twice to extend Yoon’s detention until Feb. 6 to allow them time to question him directly, the Seoul Central District Court declined to grant both requests.
 
In its first rejection on Friday night, the court said it is “difficult to discern a valid reason” to continue questioning Yoon in custody after control over the case was transferred by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) to the prosecution.
 
The court again refused to extend Yoon’s detainment on Saturday for “similar reasons” it had given the day before.
 
Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung arrives at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Jan. 24. [NEWS1]

Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung arrives at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Jan. 24. [NEWS1]

 
As a criminal suspect must be released if they are not indicted before the expiry of their arrest warrant, prosecutors were forced to choose between releasing Yoon or indicting him without being able to question him themselves.
 
If the indictment is accepted by the court, prosecutors will have rely on evidence gathered to date by the CIO during Yoon’s trial.
 
Yoon has been held at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi, since being taken into custody by CIO investigators at his official residence in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 15.
 
CIO officials repeatedly tried to question the impeached president, but he refused to attend all interrogations scheduled by the agency except for the one that took place the same day he was detained.
 
Even then, he refused to answer almost all of their questions.
 
The Korean national flag, right, and a banner with the logo of the state prosecution service flutter outside the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Jan. 26. [NEWS1]

The Korean national flag, right, and a banner with the logo of the state prosecution service flutter outside the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Jan. 26. [NEWS1]

 
The CIO consequently determined that transferring control of the probe instead of trying to question the president would allow prosecutors to investigate his decision to declare martial law and bring an indictment against him.
 
Only the state prosecution service has the power to indict a president.
 
In referring the case to prosecutors, the CIO also transferred all materials pertaining to the investigation, which thus far has amounted to more than 30,000 pages across 69 books.
 
Yoon, on his part, has denied all of the accusations against him.
 
He simultaneously claimed that he lawfully exercised his right to declare martial law to unmask “antistate forces” working for North Korea and that the actual decree was drafted by other people, including his former defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun.
 
Kim testified before the Constitutional Court on Thursday that he drafted the decree based on old templates and that its most controversial provisions were his doing.

Update, Jan. 26: Headline changed, details of Yoon’s indictment added.


BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]
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