FILE – Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, heart arrives at a court docket to attend a listening to to assessment his arrest warrant requested by particular prosecutors in Seoul, South Korea, July 9, 2025.
Kim Hong-Ji/Pool by way of AP
disguise caption
toggle caption
Kim Hong-Ji/Pool by way of AP
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in jail for his temporary imposition of martial regulation in December 2024.
Choose Jee Kui-youn stated he discovered Yoon responsible of riot for mobilizing army and police forces in an unlawful try and seize the liberal-led Nationwide Meeting, arrest politicians and set up unchecked energy for a “considerable” time.
Yoon is more likely to attraction the decision.
A particular prosecutor had demanded the loss of life penalty for Yoon, saying his actions posed a risk to the nation’s democracy and deserved probably the most severe punishment out there, however most analysts anticipate a life sentence for the reason that poorly-planned energy seize didn’t lead to casualties.
South Korea has not executed a loss of life 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 loss of life penalty.
The court docket additionally convicted and sentenced a number of former army and police officers concerned in implementing Yoon’s martial regulation decree, together with ex-Protection Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who acquired a 30-year jail time period for his central function in planning the measure and mobilizing the army.
Yoon, a staunch conservative, has defended his martial regulation 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 raise the measure.
Yoon was suspended from workplace on Dec. 14, 2024, after being impeached by lawmakers and was formally eliminated by the Constitutional Courtroom in April 2025. He has been underneath arrest since final July whereas going through a number of prison trials, with the riot cost carrying probably the most extreme punishment.
Final month, Yoon was sentenced to 5 years in jail for resisting arrest, fabricating the martial regulation proclamation and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cupboard assembly earlier than declaring the measure.
The Seoul Central Courtroom 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 making an attempt to legitimize the decree by forcing it by a Cupboard Council assembly, falsifying data and mendacity underneath oath. Han has appealed the decision.
