South Korea’s arrested President Yoon Suk Yeol does not intend to take part in a second day of questioning on Thursday, his lawyer said, further stonewalling a criminal probe into whether he committed insurrection with his martial law bid.
Yoon, the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested, was taken to the Seoul Detention Centre on Wednesday evening after refusing to cooperate, where he was expected to have spent the night in a solitary cell.
Authorities have 48 hours to question the suspended president, after which they must release him or seek a warrant to detain him for up to 20 days.
Yoon’s refusal to cooperate with investigators comes as the Constitutional Court is due to hold a second hearing in his impeachment trial to determine whether to remove him permanently or reinstate his presidential powers.
South Korea is grappling with its worst political crisis in decades, sparked by Yoon’s brief attempt to impose martial law on Dec. 3 that was voted down by parliament.
Yoon’s arrest on Wednesday ended a weeks-long standoff with authorities after police swooped before dawn on his fortified hillside villa in Seoul to the despair of followers at the site.
Yoon said he turned himself in for questioning by corruption investigation officials to prevent what he called the risk of “unsavoury bloodshed”, though he continued to protest that it was an illegal investigation and invalid arrest warrant.
Yoon has up to now refused to talk with investigators who had prepared a questionnaire of more than 200 pages, an official from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) that is heading the criminal inquiry said on Wednesday.
The embattled leader did not even reply to a question, a CIO official said.
His questioning is due to resume at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT) on Thursday afternoon, according to CIO.
But Yoon Kab-keun, one of Yoon’s lawyers, said in a text message to reporters that Yoon would not show up for the questioning.
Yonhap reported the same lawyer as citing Yoon’s health as a factor and saying further questioning was pointless, without elaborating.
The CIO official said he understood it was possible to forcibly bring Yoon for questioning but would make further checks on relevant laws.
A small crowd of protesters supporting Yoon gathered and sat on a road outside the CIO office, calling the president’s arrest illegitimate.
His lawyers have said the arrest warrant is illegal because it was issued by a court in the wrong jurisdiction and the team set up to investigate him had no legal mandate to do so.
They have also asked another court to review the legality of the arrest.
His legal team has flatly denied allegations against Yoon of masterminding insurrection, a crime in South Korea punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
Yoon’s arrest period of 48 hours has been temporarily paused while a court review is underway, according to the CIO.
Separately, after parliament impeached Yoon on Dec. 14 over his martial law attempt the Constitutional Court will now decide whether to uphold the impeachment.
Opinion polls show a majority of South Koreans support impeaching Yoon, but the attempts to arrest him appear to have rallied his hardcore supporters.
The political crisis has reverberated across Asia’s fourth-largest economy and piled pressure on the won currency.
South Korea’s central bank on Thursday unexpectedly left its policy interest rate unchanged, weighing the impact of its back-to-back rate cuts last year, while supporting the won which weakened to a 15-year low versus the U.S. dollar in recent weeks.
The majority of analysts in a Reuters poll had expected a cut in rates.
