As president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol lived in an expensive hilltop mansion, threw events and had a small military of non-public guards. As of late, he’s alone in a 107-square-foot jail cell, consuming easy meals like noodles and kimchi soup, and sleeping on the ground.
This shall be his new actuality for some time but, after he was formally arrested on rebel expenses early Sunday as a part of an investigation into his ill-fated declaration of martial regulation final month.
Mr. Yoon, 64, has been within the Seoul Detention Middle, a government-run jail south of Seoul, since Wednesday, when he grew to become the primary sitting president in South Korean historical past to be detained in a legal investigation. When a district court docket in Seoul issued the warrant to arrest him, he went from being a short lived detainee to a legal suspect dealing with an indictment and trial.
That change in standing meant that Mr. Yoon was unlikely to go away jail any time quickly. Throughout the subsequent 18 days, legal investigators and prosecutors had been anticipated to indict him on expenses of main an rebel throughout his short-lived martial regulation final month. If he’s convicted, he’ll face life imprisonment or the loss of life penalty.
Mr. Yoon’s new circumstances had been symbolic of his dramatic fall from grace: from a swaggering head of state to an impeached president to an inmate accused of committing one of many worst offenses in South Korea’s legal code. He’s the primary South Korean to face rebel expenses for the reason that former navy dictator Chun Doo-hwan, who was convicted within the Nineties.
As president, Mr. Yoon liked to throw events, usually inviting like-minded politicians to night drinks and even cooking and serving rolled egg and barbecue to his presidential press corps. He confirmed off his well-honed entertaining abilities overseas when he belted out “American Pie” throughout a White Home dinner in 2023.
Now, Mr. Yoon will get up to not presidential aides and cooks catering to his wants, however to a easy jail breakfast often made up of dumpling soup, bread or cereals. A median meal in jail prices $1.20.
The dramatic political upheaval he unleashed seems to have surprised him as a lot as on a regular basis South Koreans.
“Paradoxically, it was after I used to be impeached that I actually realized that I’m, certainly, the president,” Mr. Yoon mentioned in a prolonged assertion on Wednesday.
Many South Korean politicians and dignitaries — together with two former presidents and Lee Jae-yong, the pinnacle of the Samsung conglomerate — have been held on the Seoul Detention Middle in Uiwang, a metropolis south of Seoul. When he was a prosecutor, Mr. Yoon helped put one of many two former presidents, Park Geun-hye, there on corruption expenses. The jail additionally holds among the nation’s most notorious loss of life row inmates, together with serial killers.
Authorities officers mentioned Mr. Yoon would get no particular remedy, besides that he can be saved in a room of his personal, away from different detainees and inmates. After his formal arrest, he was anticipated to undergo a easy medical checkup and obtain a toothbrush and different requirements for jail life. He can be assigned an inmate quantity and a pea-green jail uniform.
His cell may have a TV set, a sink, a small cabinet, a studying desk that doubles as a dinner desk, and a foldable mattress for sleeping. The cell has a bathroom however no bathe. The area shall be monitored across the clock by way of closed-circuit tv.
Mr. Yoon has been an avid follower of right-wing YouTubers who supported his authorities and unfold conspiracy theories that depicted his home enemies as harmful sympathizers with North Korea and China. Since he declared martial regulation on Dec. 3, Mr. Yoon has mentioned his motion was impressed partially by the identical concern, indignation and suspicions unfold by the extremists on YouTube.
The jail TV exhibits solely packages licensed by the Ministry of Justice. Inmates have no entry to the web, together with YouTube. At rallies calling for Mr. Yoon’s arrest in latest weeks, some protesters held indicators that learn: “Yoon Suk Yeol: It’s time for a digital detox!”
Yang Kyeung-soo, a labor union chief who had hung out in a solitary cell within the Seoul Detention Middle, posted jail survival recommendations on X. “It’s a must to learn to save heat water since you wash your individual dishes. In the event you eat every little thing they serve, you’ll achieve weight rapidly.”
Mr. Yoon was anticipated to fulfill regularly together with his attorneys in a visiting space to organize for his trials. Individually, the nation’s Constitutional Courtroom is deliberating whether or not the Nationwide Meeting’s vote on Dec. 14 to question him was official and if he ought to be formally faraway from workplace.
Mr. Yoon’s martial regulation lasted solely six hours as a result of the opposition-dominated Nationwide Meeting voted it down. However throughout that temporary interval, he ordered navy commanders to seize the Meeting and arrest his political enemies, in response to prosecutors who’ve arrested and indicted the navy generals accused of serving to Mr. Yoon commit rebel.
Mr. Yoon and his attorneys insisted that his imposition of martial regulation was a official use of presidential energy.
After they detained Mr. Yoon on Wednesday, officers from the nation’s Corruption Investigation Workplace For Excessive-ranking Officers questioned him till he was despatched to relaxation in a cell on the Seoul Detention Middle at night time. He has since refused to go away his cell to face extra questioning.
However on Saturday, he attended a listening to on the Seoul Western District Courtroom, the place a decide deliberated on whether or not to difficulty a warrant to arrest him. He argued his innocence whereas hundreds of supporters gathered exterior demanding his launch. A few of them later surrounded two automobiles carrying the investigators who sought to arrest Mr. Yoon, shouting insults and damaging their automobiles.
Early Sunday morning, the decide issued the arrest warrant, saying that Mr. Yoon might destroy proof if he was launched.
When Ms. Park, the previous president, was held within the detention middle, die-hard supporters gathered close to its partitions each morning and shouted “Good morning, President Park Geun-hye!”
Since Mr. Yoon’s arrival, some supporters have camped exterior, calling his impeachment and his arrest “null and void.”
