A Seoul western district court has issued an arrest warrant against impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol following his botched martial law declaration.
It is the first time authorities have sought to detain a sitting South Korean president.
It is unclear when authorities would attempt to take Yeol into custody. January 6 was given as the deadline to execute the warrant.
“The arrest warrant and search warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol, requested by the Joint Investigation Headquarters, were issued this morning,” the Joint Investigation Headquarters, which includes officials from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), police, and the defence ministry, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The warrant comes after Yeol, who is being investigated for power abuse and inciting an insurrection, ignored three summons in the last fortnight.
The president’s legal team has called the warrant “illegal and invalid” and said they would challenge it in court.
Yeol’s security detail had previously blocked investigators from executing a number of search warrants at the presidential office compound and his official residence.
South Korea has been embroiled in political crisis since the martial law declaration, with Yeol and an acting president impeached by the opposition-dominated parliament.
However, the president can only be removed from office if his impeachment is upheld by the country’s constitutional court.
There are currently six judges on the constitutional court’s nine-member bench. This means a single rejection would save the president from being removed.
