On January 15, 2025, impeached South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol arrived at the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) of Senior Officials in Gwacheon, South Korea.
South Korean swimming pools | via Reuters
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol appeared at a court hearing on Saturday to reject a request by investigators to extend his detention on rebellion charges.
Yoon on Wednesday became the country’s first sitting president to be arrested in a criminal investigation related to his brief declaration of martial law on December 3.
On Friday, investigators requested a detention order extending Yin’s detention to 20 days. He has refused to talk to investigators and has been held at a Seoul detention center since his arrest.
After the hearing, Yoon returned to the Seoul Detention Center to await the court’s decision, which is expected on Saturday or Sunday.
The hearing at the Western District Court in Seoul lasted nearly five hours. Yonhap News Agency quoted Mr. Yoon’s lawyer as saying that Mr. Yoon gave a speech for about 40 minutes during the hearing.
“(Yin) sincerely explained and answered questions about factual relationships, evidence and legal principles… We will wait quietly for the court’s decision,” Yoon’s lawyer Yoon Kab-keun said after the hearing.
Mr Yin’s lawyer said earlier on Saturday that Mr Yin decided to attend the hearing “to restore his reputation by directly explaining the legality of emergency martial law and that the rebellion has not yet been established”.
Television channels showed a convoy of about a dozen cars and police motorcycles escorting Yin from the detention center to the court and back to the detention center.
由於警方早上驅散了封鎖法院大門的尹氏支持者人群，下午2 點左右（格林威治標準時間0500）聽證會開始後，數千名支持者在警察路障後麵包圍了法院，高呼“釋放President”.
“There are many supporters of President Yoon Seok-yeol around the court, who still believe in the rule of law and defend the president,” said 30-year-old Lee Se-ban.
Reuters witnesses said multiple people were arrested by police for trying to break into the court, including a young man who tried to escape.
The rebellion charge against Yoon by the Office for the Investigation of Senior Officials’ Corruption is one of the few crimes for which a sitting South Korean president does not enjoy immunity.
