The prosecution is conducting a search and seizure at the headquarters of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) regarding the controversy over the warrant request for President Yoon Suk-yeol. Previously, President Yoon's side stated that 'the CIO provided false answers, claiming there was no request for a warrant related to the president' and reported CIO Chief Oh Dong-won and others to the prosecution.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's Criminal Division 1 (Director General Kim Seung-ho) is conducting a search and seizure at the CIO headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, on the afternoon of the 28th. The prosecution noted, 'We are conducting the search and seizure to secure related materials for the reported cases related to the CIO's emergency martial law investigation.'
People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo held a press conference at the National Assembly on the 21st, claiming that the CIO provided 'false answers' regarding the president's warrant request. Lawmaker Joo sent an inquiry letter on January 12 to the CIO asking if they had ever requested a search warrant or communication warrant other than the arrest warrant related to President Yoon Suk-yeol from the Central District Court. In response, the CIO said, 'There is no fact that a warrant for President Yoon Suk-yeol was requested from the Seoul Central District Court.'
In response, President Yoon's legal team stated, 'Before the CIO requested the arrest warrant, on December 6 and 8 of last year, they requested communication warrants for President Yoon from the Seoul Central District Court, which were rejected.' They added, 'Subsequently, the CIO requested an arrest warrant for President Yoon from the Seoul Western District Court and obtained it.' They further asserted, 'This indicates that after the Central District Court rejected even the communication warrant, they went warrant shopping to the Western District Court,' and reported Chief Oh and others to the prosecution.
Regarding these allegations, the CIO stated, 'At that time, we were in the phase of assembling a task force for emergency martial law investigation.' They explained, 'The investigation planning officer was vacant, and the prosecutors were assigned to the task force for the investigation, and I believe the documents were prepared by dispatched staff and submitted to the National Assembly. There were shortcomings.' Furthermore, the CIO confirmed that while they have submitted a communication warrant request to the Central District Court, they have never requested an arrest warrant or detention warrant.