Yoon Suk Yeol was convicted of rebellion over his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024 to suppress the opposition\n<\/p>\n
Judge Jee Kui-youn said he found Yoon guilty of rebellion for mobilising military and police forces in an illegal attempt to seize the liberal-led National Assembly, arrest politicians and establish unchecked power for a \u201cconsiderable\u201d time.<\/p>\n
Yoon is likely to appeal against the verdict.<\/p>\n
A special prosecutor had demanded the death penalty for Yoon, saying his actions posed a threat to the country\u2019s democracy and deserved the most serious punishment available, but most analysts expect a life sentence since the poorly planned power grab did not result in casualties.<\/p>\n
South Korea has not executed a death row inmate since 1997, in what is widely seen as a de facto moratorium on capital punishment amid calls for its abolition.<\/p>\n
As Yoon arrived in court, hundreds of police officers watched closely as Yoon supporters rallied outside a judicial complex, their cries rising as the prison bus transporting him drove past.<\/p>\n
Yoon\u2019s critics gathered nearby, demanding the death penalty.<\/p>\n
The court also convicted and sentenced several former military and police officials involved in enforcing Yoon\u2019s martial law decree, including ex-defence minister Kim Yong Hyun, who received a 30-year jail term for his central role in planning the measure and mobilising the military.<\/p>\n
Yoon, a staunch conservative, has defended his martial law decree as necessary to stop liberals, whom he described as \u201canti-state\u201d forces, from obstructing his agenda with their legislative majority.<\/p>\n
The decree lasted about six hours before being lifted after a quorum of legislators managed to break through a military blockade and unanimously voted to lift the measure.<\/p>\n
Yoon was suspended from office on December 14 2024 after being impeached by legislators and was formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025.<\/p>\n
He has been under arrest since last July while facing multiple criminal trials, with the rebellion charge carrying the most severe punishment.<\/p>\n
Last month, Yoon was sentenced to five years in prison for resisting arrest, fabricating the martial law proclamation and sidestepping a legally mandated full cabinet meeting before declaring the measure.<\/p>\n
The Seoul Central Court has also convicted two of Yoon\u2019s cabinet members in other cases.<\/p>\n
They include former prime minister Han Duck-soo, who received a 23-year prison sentence for attempting to legitimise the decree by forcing it through a cabinet council meeting, falsifying records and lying under oath.<\/p>\n
Han has appealed against the verdict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yoon Suk Yeol was convicted of rebellion over his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,898,43,60422,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-305893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-latest-news-ticker","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-news-in-90-seconds","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}