Seoul, Dec 23 (EFE).- South Korean police are analyzing the personal phone records of President Yoon Suk-yeol as part of the investigation into his overturned declaration of martial law earlier this month, authorities said Monday.
The special police investigation team handling the case is reviewing the records for conversations with individuals allegedly involved in the imposition of martial law on Dec. 3 after obtaining them through a court order.
They are also working to gain access to a secure phone used by Yoon and its records from the Presidential Security Service.
The same source said that authorities have obtained a document that Yoon gave to Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok during a Cabinet meeting that took place shortly before the imposition of martial law.
This text describes measures to cut off the operating expenses of the National Assembly (parliament) and to form a budget for it under martial law.
South Korean police have so far questioned 10 of the 12 attendees at the Dec. 3 Cabinet meeting, but have not yet questioned Yoon or former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun.
Yoon, who has been banned from leaving the country, as well as other of his Cabinet – such as Kim Yong-hyun, who remains in pretrial detention – and senior military and police officials are being investigated for alleged crimes of mutiny, abuse of power or insurrection.
The latter is the most serious of these and could even lead to Yoon’s arrest, since not even presidential immunity prevails in cases of insurrection, a crime that carries life imprisonment or the death penalty (on which there has been a moratorium in South Korea since 1997).
Yoon was impeached mid-month by parliament with the votes of at least 12 deputies from his ruling conservative People Power Party (PPP), and his functions are now being carried out on an interim basis by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.
Yoon is now awaiting the decision of the Constitutional Court, which has a maximum of six months to determine whether the president violated the Magna Carta by implementing martial law and whether, therefore, his dismissal should be ratified or he should be reinstated in office. EFE
asb-emg/tw
