Ruling party lawmakers gather at presidential residence to protest against warrant to detain Yoon

Around 30 ruling party lawmakers gathered near the presidential residence to rally against investigators' efforts to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday.

Last Friday, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), handling the probe on Yoon's short-lived martial law imposition, attempted to detain Yoon at his official residence but called it off after an hourslong standoff with the Presidential Security Service.

"The CIO is pretending as if it has the right to exercise the authority over investigations when it does not have the rights," Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) said during the rally.

PPP Reps. Yoon Sang-hyun, Cho Bae-sook, Park Dae-chul and Kim Seok-ki were among the participants.

The CIO has asked the police to take over the execution of the warrant.

Yoon has refused to cooperate with the CIO's summonses for questioning or warrant execution as the agency is not technically authorized to investigate charges of insurrection that he faces over his brief imposition of martial law on Dec. 3.

The PPP's interim leader, Kwon Young-se, also stressed that the CIO has no rights to "subcontract" investigations to the police.

"The warrant itself is problematic because the CIO does not have the authority to investigate (insurrection charges), and it has no authority to subcontract it to the police," Kwon told reporters after a party meeting at the National Assembly. (Yonhap)