Investigators have prepared more than 200 pages of questions for questioning, but Yoon refuses to talk to them.
Arrested South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol does not want to take part in a second day of questioning on Thursday, his lawyer said. It is again hampering a criminal investigation into whether Yun rebelled in an attempt to impose martial law.
Yoon is the first South Korean president to be arrested while in office. After his arrest Wednesday, he refused to cooperate with the investigation, refusing to answer questions from investigators. Later in the evening local time, he was taken to the Detention Center in Seoul. He is believed to have spent the night in a solitary cell here.
Reuters said authorities had 48 hours to question him. He must then be released or seek a court warrant to detain him for up to 20 days.
A second hearing in Yoon’s impeachment trial is scheduled for Thursday at the Constitutional Court. Whether he will be permanently dismissed from the presidency or returned to power will be determined. Yoon has been suspended since South Korea’s parliament impeached him.
President Yoon suddenly stunned everyone by declaring martial law on December 3. He lifted martial law after about six hours as parliament did not respond to his announcement. Still, South Korea plunged into its deepest political crisis in decades.
On December 14, Parliament impeached President Yoon over the declaration of martial law. After being impeached, he was temporarily suspended from the presidency. Now an acting president is running the administration of South Korea.
Yoon said he turned himself over to Corruption Investigation Agency (CIO) officials for questioning to avoid “unpleasant bloodshed”. However, he continued his protest, claiming that the investigation was illegal and the arrest warrant was illegal.
On Wednesday, a CIO official investigating corruption by high-ranking South Korean officials said investigators had prepared more than 200 pages of questions for Yoon, but he was refusing to talk to them.
He did not even answer a single question, a CIO official said.
His questioning was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. local time on Thursday. But Yoon will not appear for questioning, one of his lawyers told reporters in a text message.