S Korea investigators seek new warrant for Yoon

SEOUL

Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attend a rally to oppose his impeachment near the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.

South Korean anti-graft investigators were holding on Tuesday for a new court-ordered arrest warrant for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose failed martial law bid threw the country into turmoil.

The former star prosecutor has refused questioning three times over a bungled martial law decree last month which plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.

As anti-graft officials seek a new warrant from the same court that issued the first order, Yoon remains holed up in his residence surrounded by hundreds of guards preventing his detention.

"The Joint Investigation Headquarters today refiled a warrant with the Seoul Western District Court to extend the arrest warrant for defendant Yoon," the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) said in a statement late on Jan. 6.

"Details regarding the validity period cannot be disclosed", the CIO added after the initial seven-day warrant expired.

If investigators are able to detain Yoon, he would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.

Yoon is being investigated on charges of insurrection and, if formally arrested and convicted, faces prison or, at worst, the death penalty.

His lawyers repeatedly said the initial warrant was "unlawful," pledging to take further legal action against it.