South Korea’s anti-graft chief apologises for failing to arrest impeached President Yoon
On Tuesday, the chief of South Korea’s anti-corruption investigative agency apologised for last week’s failure to arrest the impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law imposition.
Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, said in a parliamentary session of the legislation and judiciary committee that he sincerely apologised.
He apologised to South Koreans for the botched attempt to execute the arrest warrant against Mr Yoon, which was blocked by the presidential security service.
Mr Dong-woon stressed that the bungled execution of the warrant, legitimately issued by the judiciary, undermined the rule of law, vowing to make the best efforts to make thorough preparations and proceed with the warrant without setbacks.
The CIO formed a joint investigation unit with the National Office of Investigation and the defence ministry’s investigative headquarters to investigate Mr Yoon’s martial law imposition.
The unit requested the Seoul Western District Court to extend the arrest warrant against Mr Yoon on Monday after failing to detain him last Friday.
The CIO investigators and police officers attempted to arrest the impeached president in the presidential residence on January 3.
They failed as the presidential security service blocked the execution of the arrest warrant, which expired at midnight Monday.
The impeachment motion against Mr Yoon was passed in the National Assembly on December 14, 2024, and was delivered to the constitutional court to deliberate it for up to 180 days.
This took place during the suspension of Mr Yoon’s presidential power.
Mr Yoon, who investigative agencies named as a suspected ringleader on an insurrection charge, declared martial law on the night of December 3.
But it was revoked by the National Assembly hours later.
(Xinhua/NAN)
We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.
More from Peoples Gazette
Agriculture
FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology
The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices
Politics
Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku
“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”
World
Facebook terminates fact-checkers in major policy change, adopts community notes
“We’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes, similar to X,” Mr Zuckerberg said in a video on Tuesday.
States
Court to deliver judgment in poultry theft case January 8
Mr Lawal told the court that the defendant committed the offence on January 3 at about 2.00 p.m., at Chimero Farm, Olubi village, Ibadan.
States
Abia CP disbands anti-cultism unit for unprofessional conduct
Mr Chinaka quoted Mr Isa as saying the action was to establish a professionally competent, service-driven, rule-of-law-compliant, and people-friendly police force.
Agriculture
Tomato farmers seek FG’s intervention to reduce post-harvest loss
The National Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria is seeking the federal government’s intervention to reduce post-harvest losses.
World
U.S. eases restrictions on Syria post-Assad regime
The U.S. says it has eased some restrictions on Syria’s government to allow for humanitarian aid.
Rights
After jailing dozens of Nigerian journalists in first year, Tinubu claims respect for media rights
“If you get picked up often, it’s because your stories are correct. If you come with a different mindset, then any little invitation and attack gets to you,” he stated.
