The South Korean justice system began this Friday to resolve the criminal consequences of the decree of then-president Yoon Suk-yeol. The Seoul Central District Court has sentenced Yoon to five years in prison for a set of crimes including obstruction of justice, considering it proven that he blocked the actions of the authorities within the framework of an investigation into his imposition of the extreme measure. He has also been found guilty of falsifying official documents and failing to comply with the legal procedures required to implement martial law.
This is the first ruling linked to the complex network of processes that surround the 65-year-old former president for that episode that shook the institutional foundations of the country and led to one of the biggest scandals in recent decades in Asian democracy, in the region. His legal team has announced that it will appeal the sentence and considers that the decision has been adopted “in a politicized manner.”
The real blow, however, may come on February 19, when this same court determines whether Yoon committed an insurrection and tried to subvert the constitutional order, a crime for which . The ruling known today is considered key to that verdict. The three magistrates have indicated when issuing it that the seriousness of the crimes that have been tried is “very high” and that the accused has not shown signs of repentance at any time.
The president of the court, Judge Baek Dae-hyun, has held that Yoon abused “the enormous influence conferred on him by the presidency” to prevent the execution of “legitimate judicial orders” and that, to that end, “he privatized public officials loyal to the Republic of Korea for his personal safety and his own benefit.”
That attempted arrest in January of last year marked a turning point in the institutional crisis. Although he had been (but his final dismissal was not yet confirmed), Yoon barricaded himself in his residential complex and ordered the Presidential Security Service to block access to investigators who came to arrest him. That operation failed and forced a second deployment, ultimately culminating in the first arrest of a sitting leader in the country’s history. “A severe punishment commensurate with the severity is necessary,” Judge Baek ruled.
The court also determined this Friday that Yoon violated the rights of seven members of his Cabinet, to whom he did not notify the call to a meeting prior to the declaration of martial law. The former leader only summoned the ministers he considered loyal to his cause, in a meeting that barely lasted five minutes. In addition, the magistrates pointed out that the proclamation of the state of emergency constitutes the falsification of a public document.
However, this Friday’s sentence is half of that requested last month by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk’s team. Yoon has only been acquitted of the charge of an alleged order to spread false information to the foreign press.
Yoon, the country’s former attorney general, was , which opened the door for justice to move forward investigating other criminal charges related to . The former South Korean president, who has been in preventive detention for a year, still has seven other pending trials, five of them related to the imposition of martial law. He is also accused of abuse of power, false testimony and , following the alleged sending of drones to North Korea with the aim of fueling tension between the two neighbors in 2024.
But the most serious charge against him is that of insurrection. The Prosecutor’s Office maintains that Yoon pushed constitutional limits by decreeing martial law without a war or national emergency justifying it. According to the accusation, he mobilized troops and police to seal the perimeter of the National Assembly and prevent the deputies from stopping the measure, and even ordered the arrest of the president of Parliament and the then leaders of the opposition. Yoon has maintained throughout these months that he sought to “alert about irregularities committed by the opposition” (which he accused of sympathizing with North Korea) and “protect democracy from anti-state activities,” but researchers consider that the real background was his own political cornering.
The Prosecutor’s Office has gone so far as to express that Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law “damaged the dignity of the nation in a much more serious way” than Chun Doo-hwan’s military coup in 1979, which opened one of the darkest periods in the country’s recent history and which lasted until 1988. Chun was sentenced to death for leading an insurrection, although the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, and he was finally pardoned in 1997. The prosecution has requested that Yoon be punished with capital punishment. However, even if convicted, South Korea has not executed anyone since 1997.
Aside from the martial law-related charges, Yoon is charged on three other fronts, including a corruption investigation in which. He is also accused of interfering in the 2022 presidential election and making false statements during his campaign, as well as allegedly manipulating or interfering in the investigation into the death of a young Navy officer in 2023 and aiding the main suspect in that case.
