This article was automatically translated from HIBAPRESS, the Arabic version:
Hibapress
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted on Sunday for leading an insurrection during his attempt to impose martial law last December, Yonhap news agency reported.
Suspended from his functions since December 14 after his dismissal by the National Assembly, Mr. Yoon (64), already under impeachment proceedings, becomes the first president in office in the history of the Asian country to be indicted with provisional detention.
This indictment comes on the eve of the expiration of the legal duration of his preventive detention, after the rejection, on Saturday, by the Seoul Central District Court of a second request from investigators to extend this detention.
The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which initially took Mr. Yoon into custody on January 15, transferred the case to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, lacking the legal mandate to charge a sitting president .
According to Yonhap, investigating prosecutors deemed the indictment necessary after a thorough review of the evidence.
They accuse Mr. Yoon of conspiring with former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and other officials to incite an insurrection on December 3 by declaring an unconstitutional and illegal state of emergency, given the absence of any sign of war, armed conflict or comparable national crisis.
He is also suspected of having deployed troops to the National Assembly to prevent deputies from voting to lift martial law.
The suspended president is also accused of planning to arrest and detain key political figures, including National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and the heads of the two major parties, as well as officials from the National Commission on elections.
