Seoul: A court on Thursday sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison for his failed bid to impose martial law in 2024, casting the attempt as an insurrection marked by the deployment of troops to the National Assembly. In the first ruling on the case, the Seoul Central District Court convicted Yoon of leading an insurrection through the martial law bid but handed down a sentence lighter than the death penalty recommended by special prosecutors.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the ruling came 14 months after the former president made the surprise declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, with the stated aim of eradicating anti-state forces, though the order was lifted six hours later following a vote by the National Assembly. Jee Kui-youn, the presiding judge, stated during the hearing that Yoon aimed to paralyze the National Assembly by deploying troops to seal it off and arrest key politicians. "It is also recognized that he staged a riot by sending the military," said the judge.
The court emphasized that under the Constitution, an insurrection is an act aimed at removing state authority or staging a riot to subvert the Constitution. The declaration of martial law alone does not constitute an insurrection, but in Yoon's case, it did because he aimed to paralyze a constitutional body. The court highlighted that the core issue was Yoon's deployment of troops to the National Assembly.
The former president was personally involved in planning the crime and engaged many others in the act, resulting in an enormous social cost and a lack of apology from Yoon. However, the court noted that the plan was not thorough, the use of force was limited, and Yoon had no prior criminal convictions, served as a public servant for decades, and was 65 years old.
Seven other defendants, including former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, former National Police Agency chief Cho Ji-ho, and former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief Kim Bong-sik, received their first verdicts alongside Yoon. The former defense minister was sentenced to 30 years in prison, while Cho received 12 years and the former Seoul police chief 10 years for their roles in the martial law bid.
Yoon has already been sentenced to five years in prison in a separate trial on charges, including obstruction of investigators' attempts to detain him last year. The courtroom where Thursday's proceedings were held was the same place where former President Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death in 1996 for his roles in a 1979 coup and the military's suppression of the Gwangju democratization movement in 1980.