South Korean President Yoon attends court hearing to extend detention By Reuters
By Joyce Lee and Ju-min Park
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s indicted President Yoon Suk Yeol attended a court hearing on Saturday to argue against a request by investigators to extend his detention on insurrection charges, his lawyer said.
Yoon on Wednesday became the country’s first sitting president to be arrested as part of a criminal investigation related to his short-lived declaration of martial law on December 3.
Investigators applied for an arrest warrant Friday to extend their detention against Yoon by up to 20 days. He refused to speak to investigators and has been held at the Seoul Detention Center since his arrest.
Police officers were seen breaking up a crowd of Yoon’s supporters blocking the gate of the Seoul Western District Court, where the hearing began around 2 p.m. (0500 GMT). A decision is expected on Saturday or Sunday.
Television channels showed a convoy of about a dozen cars and police motorcycles escorting Yoon from the detention center to the court.
“He decided to participate … to restore his honor by directly stating the legitimacy of the martial law state of emergency and that there is no justification for an insurrection,” Yoon’s lawyer Yoon Kab-keun said in a statement.
The insurrection, the crime Yoon is accused of by the Senior Officials Corruption Investigation Bureau, is one of the few against which a sitting South Korean president has no immunity.
Arrest warrant hearings in South Korea typically last about two hours, but can last eight to 10 hours in heated arguments.
