South Korea investigators want Yoon formally charged

The South Korean agency leading the criminal investigation into impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol has recommended he be charged with insurrection and abuse of power.

The investigators handed to prosecutors on Thursday the results of their 51-day probe into the December 3 attempt to declare martial law.

Yoon was arrested last week in a dramatic standoff with security over his martial law bid, becoming South Korea’s first sitting president to be detained. 

What do we know about the investigator’s recommendation?

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said it “decided to request the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office file charges against the sitting President, Yoon Suk Yeol, in connection with allegations including leading insurrection.”

It said the impeached president had “conspired with the former Minister of National Defense and military commanders on December 3, 2024.”

The leader, currently suspended from duties, “declared martial law with the intent to exclude state authority or disrupt the constitutional order, thereby inciting riots.”

The CIO was set up in 2021 as an independent anti-graft body to probe high-ranking officials including the president and their family members.

Its team involves police and the Defense Ministry. However, the agency lacks the authority to prosecute the president and can only issue recommendations to that effect.

Prosecutors have 11 days to decide whether to charge Yoon, who would in that case face a criminal trial.

Since his arrest, the impeached president has refused questioning by the CIO. His lawyers have said time and again that the CIO is not authorized to probe insurrection.

Yoon and his lawyers have argued that his martial law bid was a necessary measure due to election fraud after the opposition won parliamentary elections in a landslide last year.

In parallel to Yoon’s criminal investigation, he is also facing an impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court. The court’s decision will determine whether Yoon would be permanently removed or reinstated as president.

Yoon’s martial law bid and its aftermath

Yoon’s brief attempt to impose martial law in December has spiralled into a major political and constitutional crisis in the country.

If the former prosecutor is charged with masterminding insurrection, he could face life in jail or even the death penalty if found guilty.

Prior to his detention, he evaded arrest for weeks by remaining in his residential compound, protected by members of the Presidential Security Service (PSS).

Yoon stresses his investigation was illegal and the arrest warrant used to detain him was invalid.

Several opinion polls say a majority of South Koreans support his impeachment, but naturally his staunch followers oppose it.

rmt/lo (AFP, Reuters)