Impeached former President Yoon Suk Yeol might face the dying penalty if he’s convicted Thursday over his failed try to impose martial legislation on South Korea.
A Seoul court docket is ready to ship its extremely anticipated ruling within the rebellion trial of Yoon, whose short-lived energy seize despatched the U.S. ally into political turmoil.
The decision and sentence, set to be broadcast reside throughout the nation, will probably be handed down by a three-judge panel on the capital’s Central District Courtroom in a listening to scheduled to start out at 3 p.m. native time (1 a.m. ET). Safety on the court docket was heightened on Thursday in preparation for the potential of massive crowds.
Yoon, 65, has pleaded not responsible to rebellion, probably the most critical of a spread of prices he faces in connection along with his martial legislation order. If he’s convicted, he faces a minimal sentence of life in jail, although prosecutors have requested for the dying penalty.
The court docket will even rule on seven former army officers and senior police officers accused of collaborating within the imposition of martial legislation, together with former Protection Minister Kim Yong-hyun, with prosecutors looking for jail phrases of 10 years to life.
Yoon’s 2024 martial legislation order, the primary of its type in South Korea in additional than 40 years, shocked a rustic that turned considered one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies after having spent many years below military-authoritarian rule. South Korea was mired in months of political uncertainty because the chaos from the decree was adopted by Yoon’s impeachment and an influence vacuum on the high of presidency.
The episode has additionally deeply divided the politically polarized public, with Yoon’s conservative supporters cheering his makes an attempt to combat impeachment and arrest in an echo of scenes in america.
The disaster started in December 2024 with Yoon’s shock late-night announcement in a nationally televised tackle that he was suspending civilian authorities in South Korea, together with a ban on all political exercise and censorship of the information media.
Yoon, who was elected president in 2022, mentioned the martial legislation order was crucial as a result of “anti-state” forces within the opposition-controlled parliament had paralyzed the federal government by way of price range cuts and efforts to question a number of senior officers.
The order didn’t final lengthy, nonetheless, as lawmakers rushed to the Nationwide Meeting in dramatic in a single day scenes, pushing previous troops despatched there by Yoon and voting unanimously towards it in an emergency session. Yoon lifted the order about six hours after he imposed it.
Lawmakers impeached Yoon about 10 days later, and in January 2025 he turned South Korea’s first president to be arrested whereas in workplace. South Korea’s Constitutional Courtroom upheld his impeachment in April.
Yoon, a former prosecutor, additionally faces eight felony trials over the martial legislation order and different allegations, and he was sentenced to 5 years in jail final month within the first of these verdicts. He’s interesting that ruling.
Different trials are nonetheless ongoing, together with one through which he’s charged with treason after he was accused of ordering that drones be despatched into North Korean airspace to impress a confrontation that would justify martial legislation.
Yoon denies wrongdoing, saying that he had the suitable as president to declare martial legislation and that the order was a short-term, symbolic effort to boost public consciousness of the risk from opposition lawmakers.
Prosecutors within the rebellion trial mentioned that the martial legislation order was a long-planned effort to increase Yoon’s rule indefinitely in violation of the structure and that he was pushed by a “lust for energy.”
Different officers from Yoon’s administration have additionally acquired jail phrases over their roles in finishing up the martial legislation order. Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, 76, was sentenced to 23 years final month, whereas former Inside Minister Lee Sang-min, 61, was sentenced to seven years final week.
Yoon’s spouse, former first girl Kim Keon Hee, was additionally sentenced to twenty months in jail for bribery final month in a case that’s unrelated to the martial legislation order.
The entire rulings might be appealed.
The nation is now led by President Lee Jae Myung of the liberal Democratic Social gathering, who was elected in June.
Forward of the decision on Thursday, Lee famous experiences this week that the folks of South Korea, formally generally known as the Republic of Korea, had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for resisting the martial legislation order, describing his nation as “a mannequin for human historical past.”
“The Republic of Korea does it!” he mentioned in a submit on X.
