South Korean police on Friday said they are formally building a case against impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over accusations that he obstructed the execution of an arrest warrant.
Recall that a South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for Yoon on December 31 as part of a criminal investigation accusing him of insurrection over his martial law decree last year.
However, the warrant was not executed until January 15, after Yoon failed to comply and the Presidential Security Service blocked investigators for several days.
A police spokesperson stated that authorities have been investigating Yoon on suspicion of special obstruction of public duty since around January 3.
According to South Korean law, the offense is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Yoon has maintained that his short-lived martial law declaration on December 3 did not constitute insurrection, one of only two charges a sitting president is not immune from.
His lawyers have repeatedly argued that his arrest was politically motivated and that the warrant was invalid due to procedural flaws in the investigation.
One of his lawyers on Friday accused investigators of warrant shopping, citing their attempts to obtain search warrants for communication records from multiple courts.
“With its…warrants rejected by the Seoul Central District Court, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) submitted warrants to Seoul Western District Court,” the lawyer said.
