Impeached Yoon defies summons

FILE: Yoon Suk Yeol, the 20th President of Republic of Korea. (Photo By Republic of Korea from Seoul, Republic of Korea/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0) 

By Yonhap, Philippine News Agency

SEOUL – Prosecutors said President Yoon Suk Yeol did not comply with their summons for Sunday and added they will soon issue another order.
The special prosecution team handling an investigation into Yoon’s botched martial law imposition said it had sent a summons to Yoon last Wednesday, asking him to appear at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office for questioning at 10 a.m. Sunday.

He did not appear, however.

Prosecutors plan to send their second summons to Yoon on Monday.

A prosecution official said the summons was sent to Yoon’s office and that the prosecution had confirmed its delivery.

But the official declined to confirm whether Yoon had provided any reasons for not complying with the summons.

Yoon is accused of abusing his power to declare martial law for unconstitutional and unlawful purposes and to order military commanders to dispatch troops to the National Assembly and arrest key political figures.

With investigators trying to determine whether Yoon had staged an insurrection, the suspended president is under a travel ban.

Yoon was impeached in a parliamentary vote on Saturday, 11 days after he had declared martial law, only to have it rejected by the National Assembly hours later.

He has been suspended from his duties until the Constitutional Court decides whether to reinstate him or remove him from office.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is serving as acting president.

Prosecutors and police have also been questioning military commanders in connection with the martial law decree.