South Korean President Yoon to skip first impeachment trial hearing over safety concerns

“The officials in the Corruption Investigation Office and the police are trying to enforce illegal and invalid arrest warrants through unlawful methods, raising serious concerns about personal safety,” Yoon’s lawyer Yoon Kab-keun said in a statement.

“For the president to appear in court, these safety and security issues must first be addressed”, he added as per Reuters. 

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) is also planning a new attempt to arrest the president over a separate case linked to his failed attempt to declare martial law in early December. An earlier arrest attempt on January 3 ended in a standoff lasting several hours at Yoon’s highly secured residence in central Seoul.

Yoon’s push to impose martial law has triggered South Korea’s worst political crisis in decades and shaken confidence in the country’s economy, the fourth largest in Asia.

(with inputs from Reuters)