dpa
Beijing
Following the failed attempt by South Korean authorities to detain suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol, he has announced legal steps against those involved, the Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday.
Yonhap cited Yoon’s lawyer as saying he plans to file a complaint on Monday against some 150 law enforcement officials, including the chief of the anti-corruption agency handling his martial law case.
Dozens of investigators working for the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) had attempted to execute a court warrant for Yoon’s detention on Friday after he had ignored three summonses for questioning over his botched attempt to impose martial law on December 3.
However, some 200 army members and security personnel blocked access on the grounds of the presidential residence, causing the CIO officers to turn back some five and a half hours later.
Lawmakers removed Yoon from office until further notice on charges of abuse of power and sedition in mid-December, with the Constitutional Court currently reviewing the decision.
Yoon’s successor as acting president, Han Duck Soo, was subsequently removed from office, after opposition lawmakers criticized him for failing to fill vacant seats on the Constitutional Court in what they saw as an effort to complicate the impeachment proceedings.
Former finance minister and deputy prime minister Choi Sang Mok has been acting president since December 27.
Yoon is the first sitting South Korean president to face an arrest, according to Yonhap.
The investigators seeking to detain Yoon could again attempt to do so on Sunday, Yonhap reported.
Should they succeed, they would have 48 hours to question Yoon and decide whether to release him or seek an arrest warrant for him.
A court in Seoul on Sunday rejected an application by the suspended president aimed at declaring the warrant for his detention invalid.
