A court in South Korea sentenced disgraced former president Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison on Friday after finding him guilty on charges related to his unsuccessful imposition of martial law.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of obstructing authorities from executing an arrest warrant related to his martial law declaration in December 2024. The court also found him guilty of charges that include fabricating official documents and failing to comply with the legal process required for martial law.
“The defendant abused his enormous influence as president to prevent the execution of legitimate warrants through officials from the Security Service, which effectively privatised officials … loyal to the Republic of Korea for personal safety and personal gain,” the lead judge on the three-justice panel said during the televised hearing.
Judge Baek Dae Hyun said “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hadn’t shown remorse and only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses”.
“The defendant’s culpability is extremely grave,” he said, according to local media.
Yoon evaded arrest for weeks by remaining inside his residential compound, protected by hundreds of loyal members of the Presidential Security Service.
He was eventually detained in a pre-dawn raid, when security forces pushed their way past bus barricades, cut through barbed wire and used ladders to enter the compound, where he was encircled by his guards. Yoon’s arrest was the first ever of a sitting president in South Korea.
He later claimed he had cooperated to prevent “bloodshed”.
The verdict is the first against Yoon in the eight criminal trials over the decree he issued in 2024 and other allegations. The most significant charge against him is that he led a rebellion in connection with his martial law enforcement. This charge carries a potential death penalty.
Yoon, currently held at the Seoul Detention Centre, didn’t respond publicly to the ruling.
One of his lawyers, Yoo Jung Hwa, said the former president would appeal. “We express regret that the decision was made in a politicised manner,” she said.
Previously, when an independent counsel demanded a 10-year prison term for him over those charges, the former president’s defence team accused them of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such “an excessive” sentence.
Jung Chung Rae, the leader of the ruling Democratic Party, reacted to the verdict, saying “the purge of insurrection has only just begun”.
“From five years’ imprisonment to the death penalty, every speck of insurrection must be punished under the principle of zero tolerance. The eradication of insurrection in the Republic of Korea cannot be accomplished through leniency,” she said in a post on Facebook.
Yoon maintains he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament that obstructed his agenda.
But investigators have viewed his decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule.
Yoon has been impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law triggered huge public protests calling for his removal.
Parliament, joined by some members of Yoon’s conservative party, voted within hours to overturn his surprise martial law decree, which led to his impeachment and subsequent suspension of his powers.
He was removed from office in April last year by the constitutional court that ruled he violated the duties of his office.
