Key points
- Police have seized encrypted phone servers
- Yoon appeared in court on Monday
- He declared martial law last December
ISLAMABAD: South Korean police raided Wednesday the office of former president Yoon Suk Yeol and his security detail, as part of a spiralling criminal probe into the impeached leader.
AFP reported that Yoon declared martial law in December, sending armed soldiers to parliament before reversing course. He was quickly impeached by lawmakers, but resisted arrest for weeks in a criminal probe.
After a lengthy standoff, in which his security detail played a key role, he became South Korea’s first sitting president to be arrested in January. He was later released on procedural grounds.
AFP cited the Police as saying, “They had “initiated the execution of a search and seizure warrant at the presidential office and the presidential residence complex.”
Police seized encrypted phone servers and raided the office of Yoon’s presidential security detail, plus his chief of security’s house, in what they said was part of a probe into “alleged obstruction of an arrest warrant execution”.
“Not a coup d’etat”
Yoon spent weeks holed up in his compound in January, protected by members of the Presidential Security Service who had remained loyal to him.
Police also seized CCTV footage from the presidential office, as part of a separate probe into former interior minister Lee Sang-min, they said.
Reuters reported that Yoon Suk Yeol argued that his brief martial law declaration late last year was “not a coup d’etat” as he appeared in court on Monday for the start of a criminal trial over charges that he led an insurrection.
The martial law attempt, which lasted about six hours before Yoon backed down in the face of parliamentary opposition and public protests, plunged the country into months of turmoil and led to the Constitutional Court removing him from the presidency this month for violating constitutional powers, Reuters reported.
His next hearing is scheduled for April 21, with experts saying the trial is likely to go on for months, according to AFP.
