S. Korea’s ex-President Yoon gets life sentence
A South Korean court on Thursday sentenced former President Yoon Suk-yeol to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection with his short-lived declaration of martial law in December 2024.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon acted as the “ringleader” in an attempt to subvert the constitutional order. The statutory penalties for leading an insurrection under South Korean law are death, life imprisonment, or life imprisonment without labor.
The ruling came after the special counsel investigating Yoon demanded the death penalty on Jan. 13, arguing he had shown “absolutely no remorse” for destroying constitutional values, including the rule of law and such fundamental rights as freedom.
Yoon has denied being the ringleader and claimed the purpose of the declaration was to inform the public of a national crisis, with state affairs paralyzed by the interference of the then opposition Democratic Party.
On Jan. 16, Yoon was sentenced in a separate case to five years in prison after being found guilty of obstruction of justice and other charges in connection with the martial law he abruptly declared on the night of Dec. 3, 2024.
Yoon is the first former South Korean president to be convicted of insurrection since Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo in 1996. While Chun was initially sentenced to death and Roh to life, both were pardoned in 1997.
