Yoon Suk Yeol became the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested and questioned by authorities after police broke through barricades and barbed wire to handcuff him. The 64-year-old, who faces sedition charges after his short-lived attempt to declare martial law last month, plunging the country into chaos, said he would cooperate with investigators to avoid bloodshed.
“Today, when I saw them crossing the security zone using firefighting equipment, I decided to respond to the investigation of the Anti-Corruption Bureau in order to avoid bloodshed, even though this is an illegal investigation,” said Yoon Suk Yeol.
He was investigated and found guilty by parliament, which suspended him from office. Yoon's dramatic arrest on Wednesday ends a weeks-long standoff between investigators and the presidential security team. Suk Yeol had tried to evade arrest by staying at his residence, protected by members of the Presidential Security Service and the barbed wire and barricades that turned the residence into a "fortress."
Yoon, who had vowed to fight to the end, managed to evade the first attempt at arrest on January 3, after a tense standoff between guards and anti-corruption investigators working with the police. But in the early hours of Wednesday, he agreed to be questioned after more than 3,000 police and investigators from the corruption investigation bureau, determined to handcuff him, scaled the perimeter walls to reach the main building. During the arrest attempt, police also clashed with pro-presidential protesters gathered there. In a later Facebook post, which Yoon said he wrote while holed up in his residence, he repeated the allegations of election fraud and spoke of “hostile” nations attacking the country, referring to North Korea. (A2 Televizion)
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