South Korea’s Yoon charged with insurrection
SEOUL—South Korea’s prosecutors indicted impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on Dec. 3, the main opposition party said.
The charges are unprecedented for a South Korean president, and if convicted, Yoon could face years in prison for his shock martial law decree, which sought to ban political and parliamentary activity and control the media.
Anticorruption investigators last week recommended charging the jailed Yoon, who was impeached by parliament and suspended from his duties on Dec. 14.
A former top prosecutor himself, Yoon has been in solitary confinement since becoming the first sitting president to be arrested on Jan. 15 after days of defiant, armed standoff between his security detail and arresting officials.
Over the weekend a court twice refused prosecutors’ request to extend his detention while they conducted further investigation.
But with the charges they have again requested that he be kept in custody, media reports said.
‘Ringleader’
Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. It is punishable by life imprisonment or death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades.
“The prosecution has decided to indict Yoon Suk-yeol, who is facing charges of being a ringleader of insurrection,” Democratic Party spokesperson Han Min-soo told a press conference. “The punishment of the ringleader of insurrection now begins finally.”
In parallel with his criminal process, the top court will determine whether to remove Yoon from office or reinstate his presidential powers, with 180 days to decide.
