Yoon Suk-yeol Rejects Examination By CIO On Legal Reasons

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the UN General Assembly. (Source: UN/Cia Pak)

JAKARTA - The South Korean president who was impeached by Yoon Suk-yeol refused an examination by the Corruption Investigation Office for High Officials (CIO) regarding his military emergency announcement last month, on Thursday.

His lawyer said Yoon would not cooperate with any investigations by the agency, as they believed the agency did not have the legal authority to carry out such an investigation.

According to Seok Dong-hyun, a member of the presidential defense team, Yoon has no more reason to add after the 10-hour interrogation carried out by CIO investigators yesterday, will not respond to further investigation requests.

"There is no reason or necessity to cooperate with CIO's illegal investigation," said Seok, as reported by The Korea Times on January 16.

The refusal came a day after Yoon was detained on Wednesday morning at his residence in Seoul by investigators from CIO and police.

Yesterday, he underwent two examination sessions at the agency's head office. After that, he was placed in the Seoul Detention Center.

Originally, today Yoon was scheduled to undergo an examination in the morning. But the session was postponed until 2 p.m., after his lawyer mentioned health reasons. Finally, he was not present for an examination in the afternoon.

Before Yoon was taken to his headquarters in Gweacheon, Gyeonggi Province, CIO had prepared more than 200 pages of questions.

He was accused of two main criminal offenses of abuse of power and the uprising stemming from his actions in certifying and implementing a military emergency decree.

But Yoon remained largely silent, refusing to give meaningful responses, according to CIO. At the end of the first day of the examination, he refused to sign the documents needed to confirm the proper examination process.

His lawyers argue CIO does not have the legal authority to investigate the charges of rebellion, by referring to a law that clearly appoints only police to address the matter.

However, CIO still states they have the right to investigate the allegations as "related crimes."

For this reason, Yoon's legal team argues the warrant issued to detain him by what they call a "left-handed subject" judge, Lee Soon-hyung, in Seoul's West District Court, was flawed from the start.

The legal team took the matter to the Seoul Central District Court, where Judge So Joon-sub began hearings at around 5:08 p.m. to determine whether legal procedures for issuing a detention warrant were valid.

After detaining Yoon, CIO has 48 hours to decide whether to file a separate warrant to arrest him officially.

Usually, investigators apply for arrest warrants for serious crime suspects after detaining them first.

However, with the validity of the initial detention warrant under investigation, CIO suggested delaying its decision until the court ruled on the matter. This means the agency can apply for an arrest warrant after 10.33 a.m. Friday, which means exactly 48 hours after Yoon's detention. However, the president can be detained a little longer, as the time spent for a court review of the detention warrant will not be counted, according to CIO.

If an arrest warrant is issued for Yoon, CIO has 20 days before the indictment. Since prosecutors have the right to indict a president, the two institutions have agreed that the CIO investigation will be completed in the first 10 days and the case will then be handed over to prosecutors.

One of the main goals of investigators is to find out whether it has a clear intention to incite violence with the aim of "expelled national powers from all or parts of the country's territory", or "damping the Constitution" of the definition of rebellion, an allegation punishable by death.