Yoon appears for arrest warrant hearing at Seoul court

Police stand guard as a convoy with impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol departs the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi, to the Seoul Western District Court for Yoon’s arrest warrant hearing. [YONHAP]

Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared for a court hearing to decide whether a formal arrest warrant against him with be issued at the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday afternoon.
 
The hearing began at around 2:08 p.m. and was an opportunity for Yoon to deny insurrection charges raised against him by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) after his short-lived martial law declaration on Dec. 3 last year.    
 

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Cha Eun-kyung, a senior judge at the Seoul Western District Court, presided over the hearing and would be reviewing if there is any risk of destroying of evidence, among other factors.  
 
Yoon's lawyer, Yun Gap-keun, told reporters in a statement Saturday morning that the president made the decision to attend the hearing in person, contrary to public expectations, to explain the legitimacy of his martial law declaration in person and restore his reputation.
 
This marks the first time in Korean constitutional history an incumbent president has appeared for his own arrest warrant hearing. If the court decides to issue the warrant, Yoon will also become the first sitting president to be formally arrested. 
 

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At around 1:25 p.m., Yoon, transferred in a Justice Ministry vehicle and accompanied by a Presidential Security Service convoy, departed from the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi, to the court in western Seoul. Police controlled traffic for Yoon's route to the court. Yoon's supporters were gathered both in front of the detention center as he departed, and near the court as he arrived.  
 
As Yoon's convoy neared the court, some supporters stormed the road and blocked the vehicle, temporarily holding up the motorcade at around 1:50 p.m.  
 
The vehicle carrying Yoon bypassed a photo line where journalists waited and entered the court's underground parking lot around 1:54 p.m. shortly before the scheduled hearing.  
 
Yoon reportedly appeared at court in the same suit he wore when he was detained four days ago.  
 

The Justice Ministry van carrying impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives at the Seoul Western District Court in Seoul for his arrest warrant hearing at 2 p.m. [YONHAP]

Yoon has been in custody at the Seoul Detention Center after the CIO and police executed a warrant to detain him at 10:33 a.m. Wednesday at his official residence in Yongsan District, central Seoul. He has exercised his right to remain silent during the CIO investigators' questioning of him.  
 
By law, the agency has 48 hours from the moment it detained the president to keep him in custody under its original warrant to hold and investigate him over suspicions that he masterminded an insurrection against the country's democratic order by declaring martial law on Dec. 3. That timer was paused on Wednesday while the Seoul Central District Court considered a petition from Yoon's legal team challenging the validity of his detention. After the court dismissed the petition, that hold was lifted.
 

Supporters of President Yoon Suk Yeol are lying on the street in protest of his arrest in front of the Seoul Western District Court in Mapo District, western Seoul, ahead of a warrant hearing. [YONHAP]

The CIO formally filed for an arrest warrant to extend the detainment of President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday.
 
The formal arrest warrant, if granted, would allow the CIO to hold the president for questioning for up to 20 more days. If denied, Yoon could go back to the presidential residence.  
 
The decision could be made as early as Saturday night.  
 

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]