The South Korean court has extended the arrest warrant for the impeached Yoon News

The former president, who was impeached after his decree on martial law on December 3, refused to be questioned three times.

South Korea’s Anti-Corruption Agency said the warrant for the arrest of impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol has been extended.

On Tuesday, the Corruption Investigations Office (CIO) for Senior Officials did not immediately confirm how long the warrant would remain in effect. then a previous attempt Yoon’s arrest was blocked last week by the Presidential Security Service, when investigators applied for an extension of the warrant, which was set to expire on Monday.

Seoul’s Western District Court initially issued an arrest warrant for Yoon and a separate warrant to search his residence after he defied authorities on Dec. 3 by refusing to be questioned about the martial law decree.

Dozens of anti-corruption agency investigators and auxiliary police officers attempted to arrest Yoon on Friday, but were pulled back from his Seoul residence after a tense standoff with the Presidential Security Service that lasted more than five hours.

Meanwhile, the conflict continued. Many of Yoon’s supporters camped outside the presidential residence despite the cold weather.

On Monday, deputies from his People’s Power Party came to his residence and blocked the roads in front of the police.

However, investigators have yet to make another attempt to arrest the impeached head of state.

‘We sincerely apologize’

CIO chief Oh Dong-woon apologized for the failed first arrest attempt on Tuesday and said he was “heartbroken”.

“I have to sincerely apologize to the public that the arrest warrant was not executed due to the security measures taken by the President’s Security Service,” he told the deputies in the National Assembly.

The CIO was founded less than four years ago and has fewer than 100 employees and has yet to prosecute a case.

Yoon is being investigated for “rebellion” and faces prison terms or even the death penalty if formally arrested and found guilty. His failed martial law put South Korea in its position the worst political crisis in decades.

He will also be the first president in South Korean history to be imprisoned. His lawyers repeatedly said the original warrant was “unlawful” and “unlawful” and vowed to take further legal action against him.

They argued that the CIO did not have the authority to investigate because sedition was not included in the list of crimes it could investigate.