S. Korea's impeached president attends court to fight detention extension

Seoul: Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attended court for the first time on Saturday to fight a request by investigators to extend his...

Seoul: Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attended court for the first time on Saturday to fight a request by investigators to extend his detention as they probe his failed martial law bid.

Thousands of Yoon's supporters rallied outside the court and scuffled with police as they chanted support for the suspended leader, who plunged South Korea into its worst political chaos in decades with his bid to suspend civilian rule.

The president's December 3 martial law declaration lasted just six hours, with lawmakers voting it down despite him ordering soldiers to storm parliament to stop them. He was impeached soon after.

Yoon was detained in a dawn raid on Wednesday in a criminal probe on insurrection charges after he refused investigators' summons and went to ground in his residence, using his presidential security detail to resist arrest.

South Korea's first sitting president to be detained, Yoon also declined to cooperate during the initial 48 hours detectives were allowed to hold him.