President Yoon Suk Yeol has asked the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials(CIO) to defer the execution of its arrest warrant so he can concentrate on his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court.

According to Yoon’s close friend and lawyer Seok Dong-hyeon on Monday, the president’s defense team made a formal request to defer the investigation into the martial law incident while on a visit to the CIO the previous day.

When asked whether the request was intended to postpone the warrant’s execution, Seok said the emphasis should be on asking the anti-corruption agency not to execute the warrant as Yoon’s team considers the arrest to be unjustified.

Yoon’s team has maintained that the investigative agency is seeking to shame the president, and it is urging the CIO to suspend attempts to arrest him and challenging it to indict him based on its probe thus far.

The team has also claimed the CIO lacks authority to investigate treason cases and that it acted improperly by seeking an arrest warrant from a court outside the appropriate jurisdiction.