CIO attempts to transfer arrest of President Yoon to police

[Anchor]

However, before the extension of the arrest warrant, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) came up with this plan.

They attempted to have the police carry out the arrest of the president while the investigation would be conducted by the CIO.

However, amidst various controversies, the police rejected this, and it ultimately resulted in confusion due to the CIO's immature and selfish handling of the situation.

Reporter Min Jeong-hee has the details.

[Report]

This morning (1.6) around 7 AM, the National Office of Investigation's special investigation team received an official document from the CIO.

This document, sent yesterday (1.5), stated that the execution of the arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol would be entrusted to the police.

The CIO had already obtained the warrant and attempted to execute it once, but suddenly tried to hand this task over to the police.

The justification they presented was professionalism and unity in on-site command.

An official from the CIO even praised the police, stating, "In terms of execution experience, our country's police are the best," during a briefing.

However, they still clarified that the investigative authority regarding President Yoon remains with the CIO.

In the end, the situation was that they would conduct the investigation while the police would carry out the arrest.

The police held an emergency briefing this afternoon to express their refusal.

[Baek Dong-heum/Deputy Head of Police Special Investigation Team on Emergency Martial Law: "After conducting an internal legal review, we determined that the execution directive document from the CIO has legal controversies."]

The reason for this is that through the 2020 adjustment of investigative rights between the police and prosecutors, the prosecutors' authority to direct and supervise police investigations was removed, and since then, there have been no cases where the police executed warrants issued by the prosecution.

Ultimately, the CIO stated, "We agree that there should be no room for controversy," and the confusion was resolved within a day.

Criticism is mounting that the CIO attempted to shift the risky task of executing the arrest warrant without relinquishing their investigative authority, and concerns about the collaborative investigation between the CIO and the police are rising.

This is KBS News, Min Jeong-hee.