President Yoon refuses to cooperate with the Corruption Investigation Office... Arrest warrant review today

Refusal to Testify the Previous Day and Request for Legality Review of Arrest
Yoon’s Side: "Position Sufficiently Conveyed During Yesterday’s Investigation"
Arrest Warrant Expected Tonight or Tomorrow Morning

President Yoon Seok-yeol, who was arrested on charges including leading a rebellion related to the ‘12·3 Emergency Martial Law’ incident, refused to cooperate with the High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Unit (PCC) investigation on the 16th. He did not come out of the Seoul Detention Center where he was held the previous day. This is a more active expression of ‘refusal to be investigated’ following his exercise of the right to remain silent the day before.

Since President Yoon’s side has clearly stated their intention to refuse the investigation itself, it is highly likely that further progress will be difficult. Accordingly, the PCC is expected to proceed with filing an arrest warrant. It is anticipated to happen either on the evening of the 16th or the morning of the 17th.

PCC Investigation Refusal... "Sufficiently Conveyed Position Yesterday"

On the morning of the day, Yoon Gap-geun, the lawyer representing President Yoon, stated, "President Yoon will not appear for investigation at the PCC this afternoon." Lawyer Yoon added, "President Yoon’s health is not good, and since he sufficiently expressed his position yesterday, there is no need for further investigation."

Originally, the PCC investigation team planned to summon President Yoon, who was detained at the Seoul Detention Center, again for questioning that morning. However, President Yoon’s side requested a postponement of the morning investigation citing his health reasons, and the PCC accepted this, planning to conduct the re-investigation around 2 p.m.

Regarding some media reports that President Yoon refused to make any statements during the previous day’s investigation, Lawyer Yoon said, "He broadly expressed the position that the legitimacy of the emergency martial law and the charge of rebellion do not hold, and sufficiently conveyed that the PCC has no investigative authority over this case and that the arrest warrant requested from the Seoul Western District Court is illegal due to jurisdictional violation."

The previous day, the PCC’s Deputy Chief Lee Jae-seung, Investigation Department 3 Chief Lee Dae-hwan, and the lead prosecutor for this case, Investigation Department 4 Chief Cha Jeong-hyun, sequentially questioned President Yoon. The investigation, which began at 11 a.m. immediately after executing the arrest warrant and transporting President Yoon to the PCC, lasted about 10 hours and 40 minutes until 9:40 p.m. President Yoon did not respond to any questions from the prosecutors, and after the investigation, he neither reviewed nor signed the suspect interrogation record. Although the investigation was conducted in a video-recorded interrogation room, President Yoon refused, so no video recording was made. After the investigation, President Yoon was transported back to the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang City, Gyeonggi Province, by a security service vehicle and detained.

Request for Arrest Warrant Review... "No Investigative Authority and Jurisdiction Violation"

Meanwhile, President Yoon’s legal team filed a request for an arrest warrant review at the Seoul Central District Court the previous day. Their position is that under the PCC Act, the PCC has no investigative authority over the charge of rebellion, making the PCC’s investigation itself illegal, and that the arrest warrant issued by the Seoul Western District Court also violates jurisdiction under the PCC Act, rendering it an illegal arrest warrant.

The PCC Act designates the Seoul Central District Court as the exclusive jurisdiction for cases prosecuted by the PCC, allowing prosecution in other courts only under special circumstances (Article 31). However, since this provision regulates the jurisdiction for cases the PCC can directly prosecute, President Yoon’s side argues that because the PCC cannot prosecute this case and must transfer the records to the prosecution for indictment, jurisdiction lies with the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office and its corresponding court, the Seoul Central District Court.

President Yoon’s arrest warrant review will be held from 5 p.m. that day, presided over by Judge So Jun-seop of Criminal Division 32 at the Central District Court. The arrest warrant review is a system where the court examines the legality of an arrest by investigative agencies and releases the detainee if the arrest is deemed illegal or unjust. The suspect must be interrogated within 48 hours from the time the request is received.

The court will decide whether to maintain the arrest after reviewing investigation-related documents and evidence. The time from when the court receives these documents and evidence until the decision is made and returned is excluded from the ‘48-hour limit’ within which the investigative agency must request an arrest warrant from the time of arrest.

Even if the suspect challenges the legality of the arrest warrant and requests an arrest warrant review from the court, the investigative agency can still request an arrest warrant. In such cases, according to Supreme Court regulations, the arrest warrant review case is transferred to the judge who reviews the issuance of the arrest warrant and is heard together. However, when the court that received the arrest warrant review request and the court where the arrest warrant is requested are different, as in this case, the handling depends on the presiding judge’s decision.

Since President Yoon is refusing not only to testify but also to undergo the investigation itself, making further investigation appear meaningless, if the arrest warrant review requested by President Yoon is dismissed, it is also anticipated that the PCC may file an arrest warrant request against President Yoon as early as today without additional investigation.