South Korea’s anti-corruption agency recommends rebellion charges for Yoon. political news
The Office of Corruption Investigation of High-Ranking Officials says the President tried to ‘disrupt the constitutional order’.
South Korea’s anti-corruption agency has recommended that President Yoon Suk-yeol be charged with rebellion and abuse of power following an investigation into the impeached leader’s short-lived martial law declaration.
The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) for high-ranking officials said Thursday it requested prosecutors to file charges after finding that Yoon “acted with intent to subvert state authority or disrupt constitutional order.” “Civilian rule was suspended.
After the CIO transfers the case, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office will have 11 days to decide whether to charge Yoon and send him to trial.
Yoon, who had been suspended from his duties since the impeachment vote by the National Assembly on December 14, was arrested at his residence in Seoul last week after refusing repeated summonses to appear for questioning. Had gone.
His arrest marked the first time in South Korean history that a sitting president was detained.
Yun’s lawyers have argued that the CIO, established in 2021 under Moon’s predecessor Moon Jae-in, does not have the authority to investigate the president for rebellion and that his arrest was illegal.
Under South Korean law, rebellion is one of the few crimes for which the president does not enjoy immunity.
The crime is punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty, although the East Asian country has a long-standing ban on executions.
Yoon’s political fate is being considered separately by the Constitutional Court, which has 180 days to decide whether to uphold his impeachment or restore his presidential rights.
During his first appearance before the nine-member court on Tuesday, Yun denied ordering soldiers to forcibly remove lawmakers from the National Assembly so they could not vote to overturn his summary martial law decree.
Yun told the court that lawmakers could have gathered elsewhere to overturn his Dec. 3 decision, which he revoked within hours after a unanimous National Assembly vote.
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok has served as the country’s acting president since December 27, when lawmakers censured Yun’s initial successor, Han Duk-soo, for refusing to immediately fill three vacancies on the Constitutional Court. But he was impeached.
