The South Korean president is arrested for attempting to declare martial law
Yoon, who faces charges of rebellion over his short-lived effort to impose martial law last month, said he would cooperate with investigators to avoid “bloodshed.”
Yoon, a former prosecutor who led the People Power Party to an electoral victory in 2022, could face the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted of rebellion.
He sought to avoid arrest for weeks by remaining in his residential complex under the protection of members of the “Presidential Security Service” who remained loyal to him.
A fortified castle
His guards set up barbed wire and barriers around his residence, turning it into what his opponents described as a “fortified castle.”
Yoon, who pledged to “fight to the end,” succeeded in thwarting a first attempt to arrest him on January 3 after an hours-long confrontation with guards and corruption investigators cooperating with the police.
But before dawn on Wednesday, investigators produced a new arrest warrant for Yoon’s guards and they had to pass through barriers set up using buses and cut barbed wire to enter the complex, an official from the Corruption Investigation Bureau told reporters.
Hundreds of police officers and investigators from the Corruption Investigation Bureau surrounded his residence again, with some climbing over its walls and taking back roads to reach the main building.
About five hours later, the authorities announced that Yoon, who posted a previously filmed recording, had been arrested.
“I have decided to respond with the Corruption Investigation Bureau,” Yoon said in his video message, adding that he did not agree with the legality of the investigation but was complying “to prevent any unfortunate bloodshed.”
Notice of violation of the law
Shortly after that, he was transferred in a convoy to the headquarters of the Corruption Investigation Bureau. Investigators began interrogating him, but later indicated that he had exercised his “right to remain silent.”
He refused to be photographed during interrogation, an official from the Corruption Investigation Bureau told reporters, adding that Yoon would spend the night in a detention center.
In a subsequent Facebook post that Yoon said he wrote while hiding in his residence, he repeated allegations of election fraud and spoke of “hostile” countries attacking his country, a reference to North Korea.
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