South Korea's impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested by the Corruption Investigation Office for High Ranking officials on Wednesday, an anti-graft agency investigating his December 3 martial law attempt said in a statement. Yoon was holed up for weeks while under investigation on charges of insurrection. A court had granted an extension to a previous warrant, following a failed arrest attempt earlier this month.
The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials and police are jointly investigating whether Yoon's brief martial law declaration amounted to an attempted rebellion. Despite a court warrant for Yoon's detention, the presidential security service had insisted it's obligated to protect the impeached president and has fortified the compound with barbed wire and rows of buses blocking paths.
Yoon's top aide on Tuesday pleaded with law enforcement agencies to abandon their efforts to detain him. Presidential Chief of Staff Chung Jin-suk said Yoon could instead be questioned at a "third site" or his residence and said the anti-corruption agency and police were trying to drag him out like he was a member of a "South American drug cartel".
Yoon had not left his official residence in Seoul for weeks, and the presidential security service prevented dozens of investigators from detaining him after a nearly six-hour standoff on January 3.
The impeached president declared martial law and deployed troops around the National Assembly on December 3. It lasted only hours before lawmakers managed to get through the blockade and vote to lift the measure.
Yoon's presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on December 14, accusing him of rebellion. His fate now rests with the Constitutional Court, which has begun deliberating on whether to formally remove Yoon from office or reject the charges and reinstate him.