Hong Joonpyo Criticizes Yoon's Indictment as "Wrong Decision... Responsibility Will Be Re-examined Later"

"Indemnifying Indictment Without Additional Investigation"

While prosecutors have indicted President Yoon Suk-yeol on charges of being the ringleader of an insurrection, Hong Joonpyo, mayor of Daegu, criticized the move as a "wrong decision."

On January 26, Mayor Hong expressed strong regret on his Facebook page regarding the prosecution's decision to indict President Yoon based on what he described as invalid investigative documents from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which has no investigative authority.

Hong Junpyo, mayor of Daegu, is answering questions at a year-end press conference held at the Sangyeok Office of Daegu City Hall in Buk-gu, Daegu, on the afternoon of December 26 last year. Photo by Yonhap News

He argued, "Given the many contentious issues in this case, there was no reason not to conduct the investigation without detention," adding, "Rushing to file an indemnifying indictment without any additional investigation, as if being chased, will result in the issue of responsibility being re-examined in the future."

On this day, the Special Investigation Headquarters for Martial Law within the prosecution (headed by Park Sehyun, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office) indicted President Yoon on charges of leading an insurrection. This marks the first time in constitutional history that a sitting president has been indicted.

After receiving the case from the CIO on January 23, prosecutors applied for an extension of President Yoon's detention period, but this was denied. The following day, the court stated, "In cases where a CIO prosecutor investigates an alleged crime by a high-ranking official and attaches a request for indictment, then sends the documents and evidence to a prosecutor at the public prosecutor's office, it is difficult to see sufficient (reasonable) grounds for the prosecutor to continue the investigation when deciding whether to indict," and denied the extension.

About four hours after the denial, in the early morning of January 25, prosecutors reapplied for an extension of the detention period, but the Seoul Central District Court did not grant it. Unable to conduct a face-to-face investigation of President Yoon, prosecutors decided to indict him just one day before the detention period expired. The prosecution stated, "After a comprehensive review of the evidence from related cases investigated by the special investigation team, as well as evidence from cases referred by the police, we determined that it was reasonable to indict the defendant."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.