South Korean authorities on Wednesday arrested South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was ousted in December after trying to impose martial law, investigators said.
The presidential motorcade left Yoon Suk-yeol's villa, where he had been holed up for several weeks under the protection of presidential security services, to head to the offices of the Anti-Corruption Office (CIO), which is investigating the case.
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Yoon Suk-yeol said he turned himself in for questioning to avoid violence after more than 3,000 police officers stormed his residence to arrest him. “When I saw them entering the security zone today… I decided to respond to the IOC's investigation – even though it is illegal – to avoid bloodshed,”, he said in a statement.
Yoon Suk-yeol had ignored several summons from investigators seeking questioning as part of a criminal investigation into charges of insurrection over his attempt to impose martial law on Dec. 3. His lawyers said the attempts to carry out the arrest warrant for Yoon Suk-yeol – unprecedented for a sitting South Korean president – were aimed at publicly humiliating him.
Military clashes broke out between Yoon Suk-yeol supporters and police near the leader's residence as local media reported that his arrest could come soon, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene. Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in South Korea on December 3, a move that plunged Asia's fourth-largest economy and a key U.S. military ally into the country's deepest political crisis in decades.
The Constitutional Court is also set to decide whether to uphold or reject the impeachment proceedings against Yoon Suk-yeol.