Seoul, South Korea — Former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in jail for his transient imposition of martial legislation in a dramatic end result to the nation’s largest political disaster in many years.
Yoon fell from workplace after an ill-advised try to beat an opposition-controlled legislature by declaring martial legislation and sending troops to encompass the legislature on Dec. 3, 2024.
Decide Jee Kui-youn stated he discovered Yoon responsible of rebel for mobilizing army and police forces in an unlawful try to seize the liberal-led Nationwide Meeting, arrest politicians and set up unchecked energy for a “appreciable” time.
Yoon is prone to attraction the decision.
Jeon Heon Kyun / Pool Photograph through AP
HIs lawyer stated the ruling solely affirmed a prewritten script and wasn’t supported by proof within the case, in response to the Reuters information company.
A particular prosecutor had demanded the demise penalty for Yoon, saying his actions posed a menace to the nation’s democracy and deserved essentially the most severe punishment out there, however most analysts anticipated a life sentence because the poorly-planned energy seize did not end in casualties.
South Korea hasn’t executed a demise row inmate since 1997, in what’s broadly seen as a de facto moratorium on capital punishment amid requires its abolition.
As Yoon arrived in court docket, tons of of law enforcement officials watched carefully as Yoon supporters rallied outdoors a judicial complicated, their cries rising because the jail bus transporting him drove previous. Yoon’s critics gathered close by, demanding the demise penalty.
Jung Yeon-je / AFP through Getty Photographs 
The court docket additionally convicted and sentenced a number of former army and police officers concerned in imposing Yoon’s martial legislation decree, together with ex-Protection Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who acquired a 30-year jail time period for his central position in planning the measure and mobilizing the army.
Yoon, a staunch conservative, has defended his martial legislation decree as essential to cease liberals, whom he described as “anti-state” forces, from obstructing his agenda with their legislative majority.
The decree lasted about six hours earlier than being lifted after a quorum of lawmakers managed to interrupt by a army blockade and unanimously voted to carry the measure.
Yoon was suspended from workplace on Dec. 14, 2024, after being impeached by lawmakers and was formally eliminated by the Constitutional Court docket in April 2025. He has been beneath arrest since final July whereas going through a number of legal trials, with the rebel cost carrying essentially the most extreme punishment.
Final month, Yoon was sentenced to 5 years in jail for resisting arrest, fabricating the martial legislation proclamation and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cupboard assembly earlier than declaring the measure.
The Seoul Central Court docket has additionally convicted two of Yoon’s Cupboard members in different instances. That features Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who acquired a 23-year jail sentence for trying to legitimize the decree by forcing it by a Cupboard Council assembly, falsifying data and mendacity beneath oath. Han has appealed the decision.
