A South Korean court ordered life in jail on Thursday for former President Yoon Suk Yeol, after holding him guilty on charges of abuse of authority and masterminding an insurrection, stemming from his December 2024 attempt to impose martial law.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty in the case, closely watched in a deeply divided country. It is the most consequential yet for the ousted leader, whose bid triggered a
national political crisis and tested democratic resilience.
In January, prosecutors had said Yoon’s “unconstitutional and illegal emergency martial law undermined the function of the National Assembly and the Election Commission … actually destroying the liberal democratic constitutional order.”
Masterminding an insurrection carries a maximum sentence of the death penalty or life imprisonment under South Korean law.
South Korea last handed down a death sentence in 2016, but has not executed anyone since 1997. There was a strong police presence at the Seoul Central District
Court, which is trying the case, with police buses forming a security cordon around the building.
The court will also rule on charges that Yoon abused his authority by ordering troops to storm parliament to drag his opponents out and jail them, as well as dispatching soldiers and police to block, inspect, and control access to facilities such as the opposition party building.
Yoon, 65, has denied the charges. The conservative former career prosecutor argued he had presidential authority to declare martial law and that his action was aimed at sounding the alarm over opposition parties’ obstruction of government.
The ousted former leader, who has been detained at the Seoul Detention Centre, is likely to remain there regardless of the ruling. If found guilty, he is expected to appeal the ruling and can again challenge any appellate court decision at the Supreme Court.
Judicial guidelines say the first trial should conclude within six months and the entire process, including appeals, in two years, but trials often stretch beyond that. If the Seoul district court clears him on Thursday, his legal woes are far from over.
Yoon, who faces eight trial proceedings, was given a five-year jail sentence in January in a separate trial on charges including obstructing attempts by authorities to arrest him following his martial law declaration. He has appealed that ruling.
