South Korea To US: Here's How You Arrest A Corrupt Impeached President
Seems like the sort of thing democracies should know how to do, just in case.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is now in a detention center and refusing to cooperate with investigators after he was arrested Wednesday. It’s the first time a sitting South Korean president has been arrested, although several former presidents have had the honor in the past.
Yoon is being investigated on insurrection charges related to his brief December 3 attempt at doing that coup to-do that you do because he was mad at Parliament for having a majority from the progressive opposition party. He justified the declaration because he was quite sure the opposition party is full of literal North Korean communists, you see. After some members had to sneak into the building to meet, South Korea’s Parliament quickly voted to rescind the martial law decree, then on December 14 it voted to impeach Yoon and charge him with insurrecting. He was suspended from office but will keep the title of president at least through the end of his trial, for which he kinda needs to show up.
Yoon refused multiple times to meet with prosecutors who are investigating the case, so an arrest warrant was issued. But Yoon holed up in his official residence, with security guards loyal to him, and the first attempt to arrest him, on January 3, resulted in a six-hour standoff that ended up with Yoon still in the presidential compound. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court, which by law is handling the impeachment, had scheduled his trial to begin January 14, but seeing as how the defendant was hiding out in his residence, proceedings were adjourned until he could be obtained.
Just to be on the safe side, this time the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), the agency that’s in charge of the investigation, sent a team of about a thousand police to the compound in an early-morning operation, according to the BBC, although NBC News reports it was more than 3,000 officers. Either way, they didn’t meet any resistance from Yoon’s own security detail this time, but to get in they first had to scale walls and a barricade of buses parked around the place, and to use bolt cutters to get through coils of concertina wire. One group used a hiking trail to come in from the back of the residence.
Hours later — you know how long it can take to get packed — the announcement came that Yoon had been arrested, and a big line of important black cop SUVs removed Yoon from the residence. Outside, hundreds of his supporters protested, carrying signs saying “Stop the Steal,” because it’s such a great slogan for would-be coup-doers. And people say the US doesn’t export anything anymore!
Yoon was taken to CIO offices in Seoul and questioned for several hours, but investigators said he remained silent throughout, as is his right. Eventually he was moved to a nearby detention facility.
In a short video released just before he was arrested, Yoon insisted that the “rule of law has completely collapsed in this country,” although it appears he didn’t use the phrase “witch hunt” or make up any childish nicknames for the investigators. He also repeated his earlier claims that the warrant was invalid, the investigation is invalid, and YOUR MOM is invalid, adding that he went along with the arrest because he’s just that big a hero.
“I decided to appear before the CIO, even though it is an illegal investigation, in order to prevent any unsavoury bloodshed,” Yoon said in the video, and for all we know he may also have claimed an Italian spy satellite operated by the ghost of Hugo Chavez rigged the votes in Philadelphia.
Now that he’s in custody, the BBC explains, investigators can hold Yoon up to 48 hours after the arrest, after which they would need to get a new warrant to continue holding him as the investigation goes forward. If it’s granted, then he can be held for another 20 days before going to trial. But if the warrant isn’t granted, he would have to be released. The BBC didn’t mention whether South Korean authorities have changed the locks on the presidential residence, just in case.
CNN notes, however, that the 48-hour arrest period is actually on hold now while “the legality of the warrant is under review with the Seoul Central District Court” in response to a challenge by Yoon’s attorneys. Depending on the outcome, Yoon will either be sprung, or the 48-hour count will resume while prosecutors seek another warrant to hold him until trial. Presumably, Yoon’s lawyers would challenge that one as well. If the investigation results in an indictment, the case would then go to public prosecutors and be tried in court. It could take weeks or even months for the whole mess to get to trial.
At the time of the first attempt to arrest him, Yoon’s legal team even pointed at the US Supreme Court’s ruling that Donald Trump had complete immunity from prosecution for official acts, but it doesn’t appear that South Korea has any Alitos or Thomases on its top court.
This is all far from over; South Korea is sharply polarized, and at this rate we won’t be terribly surprised if the next US president somehow finds a way to make things even stupider.
Also, in case you were wondering, the embarrassing misspelled CNN headline from December 3 that referred to Yoon’s “martial law degree” remains proudly uncorrected a month and a half later. You can get your own martial law degree at Trump University.
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Isn't it funny how people in countries like South Korea and Brazil, who have actually suffered through dictatorships, have such little tolerance for new dictators?
It's as though they've learned a lesson that is about to be taught to America.
OT and Ha-Ha
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