Former South Korean president found guilty over failed martial law declaration in 2024
A South Korean court on Thursday sentenced the former president Yoon Suk Yeol to life imprisonment with labour over his failed martial law declaration in December 2024, finding him guilty of leading an insurrection and making him the first elected head of state in the country’s democratic era to receive the maximum custodial sentence.
Under South Korean law, the charge of leading an insurrection carries three possible sentences: death, life imprisonment with labour, or life imprisonment without labour.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, arguing that Yoon committed “a grave destruction of constitutional order” by mobilising troops to surround parliament and attempting to arrest political opponents during the six-hour crisis.
Yoon maintained his innocence throughout the trial, characterising the investigation as a “political conspiracy”. He said he declared martial law to alert citizens to what he described as an unconstitutional parliamentary dictatorship by the then-opposition Democratic party.
