South Korea’s former leader takes off prison uniform to resist inquiries – Country
South Korea’s imprisoned former president Yoon Suk Yeol again refused to attend investigators’ inquiries Friday, adopting a new method to resist: He took off his prison uniform and lay on the floor of the detention room.
Yoon was removed from office in April for his bad-faith martial law order and was sent back to jail last month on rebellion and other charges. Conservative Yoon faces investigations on other criminal charges not related to his December 3 martial law order, but targets him, his wife and others.
On Friday, Min Joong-ki, a special counsel named by his liberal rival and new President Lee Jae Myung, sent investigators to retrieve Yoon from a detention center near Seoul after the former president violated requests to attend the inquiry twice. Min’s team is tasked with delving into the allegations of Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, including her and her husband’s inappropriate influence on the then-partisan election nomination process in 2022.
Min’s team has a court-ruled detention order that authorized them to take Yoon out of his detention center by force, but they expressed their wish for his voluntary cooperation.
“Without wearing his prison uniform, the suspect was lying on the floor, strongly resisting his detention,” Assistant Special Counsel Oh, Zhong Kong told TV.
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Attorney General Jung Sung-Ho told lawmakers respectively that Yoon took off his shorts and short-sleeved shirt and put them back in place after investigators left.
Oh, her team members avoided physical means due to safety concerns, but notified Yoon that they would execute the warrant next time. She urged Yoon to work as the Korean people are closely watching whether the law enforcement that applies equally to all.
According to local media reports, Yoon’s lawyer Yu Jeong-Hwa accused the special counsel team of trampling on Yoon’s dignity and honor by discussing his clothes in prison.
Yoon’s defense team earlier said Yoon was unable to attend his trial due to the wasteland problem and was questioned by investigators. They said in a statement Thursday that Yoon suffers from cardiovascular, autonomic nervous system and eye problems. They quoted an unidentified hospital as saying that Yoon is at risk of blindness because he has not received treatment in the past three months.
Yoon imposed martial law for armed forces to enter the streets of Seoul for several hours until lawmakers unanimously voted to decide on his ordinance.
Yoon argued that his decree was a desperate effort to seek public support for his “evil” fight with Lee’s Democratic Party, and then the main opposition party that hampered his agenda, impeach senior officials and cut down on the government’s proposed budget.
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
