Seoul, Jan 15: South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was sent to a detention centre near Seoul on Wednesday night, after being questioned by anti-corruption officials who took him into custody over his imposition of martial law last month.
Yoon was detained in a major law enforcement operation at the presidential compound earlier in the day. Yoon defiantly insisted that the country’s anti-corruption agency, which led the raid with police, didn’t have the authority to investigate his actions, but said he complied to prevent violence.
Yoon, the country’s first sitting president to be apprehended, now faces the prospect of a lengthy prison term over potential rebellion charges.
In a video message recorded shortly before he was escorted to the headquarters of the anti-corruption agency, Yoon lamented the “rule of law has completely collapsed in this country”. Yoon had been holed up in the Hannam-dong residence in the capital, Seoul, for weeks while vowing to “fight to the end” the efforts to oust him. He has justified his declaration of martial law December 3 as a legitimate act of governance against an “anti-state” opposition employing its legislative majority to thwart his agenda. (AP)
