South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol faced renewed questioning on Thursday, a day after his dramatic arrest over a failed martial law declaration, but his lawyers said he would not take part.
The Constitutional Court was also to hold its second hearing in a trial that will decide whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment, after the dawn raid that made him the country’s first-ever sitting president to be detained.
The former star prosecutor – facing charges of insurrection – was questioned for hours on Wednesday but exercised his right to remain silent before being moved to a detention centre.
Investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) were to resume Yoon’s questioning on Thursday at 2pm local time, but his lawyer said he could not for health reasons, the Yonhap news agency reported.
“President Yoon is not well and fully explained his position yesterday so there is nothing more to be interrogated about,” Yoon Kab-keun told Yonhap, an apparent reference to his Wednesday decision to not answer questions.
Lawyer Yoon confirmed that the embattled leader would not attend, without specifying the reason.
