South Korea’s jailed ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday took off his prison uniform and laid on the floor in his detention room to avoid questioning by investigators.
Yoon, who was removed from office in April over his ill-fated imposition of martial law, was sent back to prison last month as he stands a high-stakes trial over rebellion and other charges.
The conservative faces investigations on other criminal allegations not related to his December 3 martial law decree but those targeting him, his wife and others.
On Friday, a special counsel named by his liberal rival and new President Lee Jae Myung, Min Joong-ki, sent investigators to retrieve Yoon from a detention centre near Seoul after the former president twice defied requests to attend questioning.
Min’s team is tasked with delving into allegations surrounding Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, including that she and her husband exerted inappropriate influence on the then-ruling party’s election nomination process in 2022.
Although the team had a court-issued detention warrant that authorised them to remove Yoon from his detention facility forcefully, but they said they were hoping for his voluntary cooperation.
“Without wearing his prison uniform, the suspect lay down on the floor and strongly resisted his detention,” assistant special counsel Oh Jeong-hee told a televised briefing.
Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho told lawmakers that Yoon removed his shorts and short-sleeved shirt and put them back on after investigators left.
Jung said her team members refrained from using physical means out of safety concerns, but notified Yoon that they would execute the warrant next time.
She urged Yoon to cooperate, saying the Korean people are closely watching whether the law is enforced equally.
A lawyer for the former president’s team, Yu Jeong-hwa, accused the special counsel team of trampling on Yoon’s dignity and honour by discussing his dress in prison, according to local media reports.
Yoon’s defence team said earlier that he could not attend his trial and undergo questioning by investigators because of his health problems.
They said in a statement on Thursday, that Yoon has cardiovascular, autonomic nervous system and eye issues.
They equally cited an unidentified hospital as saying that Yoon faces the risk of blindness because he failed to receive medical treatment for the past three months.
The former leader’s imposition of martial law, which brought armed troops into Seoul’s streets, lasted only several hours before lawmakers unanimously voted down his decree.
He argued that his decree was a desperate attempt to draw public support for his fight against Lee’s Democratic Party’s “wickedness.”
Lee’s Democratic Party, the main opposition party in the country obstructed the former president’s agenda, impeached top officials, and slashed the government’s proposed budget.
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