South Korean authorities arrested President Yoon Suk Yeol, 64, on Wednesday, the first time in the history of the country that a sitting president has ever been arrested, CNN reported.
Yoon is under investigation on charges of insurrection following the six-hour martial law order he issued on December 3 that plunged the country into political turmoil.
Wanted for questioning about multiple criminal investigations involving his declaration of martial law, he has been accused of inciting an insurrection, a crime that could lead to a life sentence or capital punishment in South Korea.
Wednesday’s dramatic arrest followed other unsuccessful attempts to bring Yoon in for questioning. Investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) attempted to arrest him on January 3 after a six-hour standoff with his security detail.
This time a group of detectives showed up at his home in central Seoul just before dawn on Wednesday, equipped with bolt croppers to cut through the barbed wire and ladders to scale the buses that blocked the doorway.
To get to the presidential home, around 1,000 members of the arrest team scaled the walls and went up neighboring trails before announcing Yoon had been arrested several hours later.
Although Yoon is now under arrest, he will not be removed from office until the Constitutional Court rules on the outcome of his impeachment.