Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is refusing to cooperate with investigators by taking off his clothes and refusing to move.
Special counsel investigators, fulfilling an arrest warrant on allegations of influence-peddling by Yoon, attempted to coax the former leader into voluntary questioning on Friday.
“Without wearing his prison uniform, the suspect lay down on the floor and strongly resisted his detention,” said assistant special counsel Oh Jeong-hee in a video briefing.
“Due to concerns over safety incidents, physical force was withheld, and the execution of the warrant was temporarily suspended,” she added.
Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho also told lawmakers that Yoon stripped down to his undershirt and underwear while refusing questioning, then dressed himself in the prison uniform after they relented.
Yoon’s attorney, Yu Jeong-hwa, rebuked the officials’ comments, saying that they were unfairly scrutinizing the former president’s clothing choice in a hot facility as an attempt to attack his dignity.
“The special counsel turned what should have been a press briefing into a stage for personal humiliation,” Yoon’s lawyer Yoo Jeong-hwa told Agence France-Presse.
“What kind of legal institution in a civilized country gives a real-time report and commentary to journalists on a detainee’s clothing, especially in a cramped cell nearing 40 degrees [Celsius] [104 degrees Fahrenheit]?” the attorney added.
Yoon was arrested in January following his failed attempt to impose martial law on the nation. He was released in March on a technicality after the Seoul Central District Court found the agency that detained him had no authority to investigate insurrection.
The former president was rearrested last month, with special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk claiming that he could attempt to destroy evidence in the case.
During his brief martial law period, Yoon threatened to arrest his political opponents, whom he claimed were “anti-state” actors and North Korean sympathizers.
He was impeached and suspended from office in December, and the Constitutional Court of South Korea upheld his impeachment in April.
South Korea struck a $450 billion deal with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to “buy down” U.S. tariffs from 25% to 15%.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES $450 BILLION DEAL WITH SOUTH KOREA TO ‘BUY DOWN’ US-IMPOSED TARIFFS
The East Asian country is giving the United States $350 billion “for Investments owned and controlled by the United States” and will buy an additional $100 billion of U.S. energy products.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung says the deal “will play a role in facilitating the active entry of Korean companies into the U.S. market in industries where we have strengths, such as shipbuilding, semiconductors, secondary batteries, biotechnology, and energy.”