Final hearing underway in trial examining whether former president’s Dec. 2024 martial law declaration constituted insurrection
The final hearing in former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s insurrection trial got underway at a Seoul court Friday, with attention focused on whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Special counsel Cho Eun-suk, who has led the investigation, indictment and trial proceedings against the former leader, is expected to seek one of the harshest penalties available under South Korean law, accusing Yoon of being the ringleader of an insurrection: the death penalty, life imprisonment or life imprisonment without forced labor.
The hearing began at 9:20 a.m. at the Seoul Central District Court, with all eight defendants present, including Yoon. The trial, one of several stemming from the Dec. 3, 2024, martial law crisis, is widely considered the most significant, as it examines the nature of the episode and Yoon’s actions — specifically, whether they constituted an insurrection or a lawful exercise of presidential emergency powers, as Yoon claims.
The other defendants are former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, former National Police Agency chief Cho Ji-ho and five others accused of playing key roles in plotting and imposing martial law.
Legal sources anticipate the court's sentencing to come in early February.
Yoon is charged with conspiring with the former defense minister and others to stage a riot with the aim of subverting the Constitution by illegally declaring martial law in the absence of war or an equivalent national emergency.
In particular, the former president is charged with mobilizing troops and police to seal off the National Assembly compound and prevent lawmakers from voting down his decree, ordering the arrest and detention of the National Assembly speaker and leaders of both the ruling and main opposition parties.
Yoon became South Korea's first sitting president indicted with physical detention in January last year.
He was released in March following a court order that canceled his arrest, but was taken into custody again in July on additional charges related to his martial law attempt, months after his impeachment was formally confirmed and he was removed from office.
The courtroom where Friday's hearing was held is the same venue where other former leaders have been tried for various offenses, including former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, who in 1996 received sentencing recommendations of the death penalty and life imprisonment, respectively, for their roles in a 1979 coup that installed Chun in power in 1980.
Amnesty International has categorized South Korea as a death penalty abolitionist in practice as the punishment has not been carried out since December 1997. (Yonhap and news reports)
khnews@heraldcorp.com
