Category World News

South Korean prosecutors have asked for ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol to face the death penalty over his failed attempt to impose martial law in 2024.

Special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk’s team made the request to the Seoul Central District Court during court on Tuesday, accusing Yoon of threatening the “liberal democratic constitutional order” with his “self-coup”.

“The greatest victims of the insurrection in this case are the people of this country,” said the prosecutors. “There are no mitigating circumstances to be considered in sentencing, and instead, a severe punishment must be imposed.”

Yoon plunged South Korea into a crisis with his martial law declaration in December 2024, prompting protesters and lawmakers to swarm parliament to force a vote against the measure.

The decree was quickly declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and Yoon was subsequently impeached, removed from office and jailed.

Yoon’s criminal trial for insurrection, abuse of power, and other offences linked to the martial declaration ended on Tuesday after 11 hours of proceedings.

The court is expected to deliver a verdict on the case on February 19, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Yoon says investigations ‘frenzied’

The former president has denied the charges against him, arguing that he was acting within his authority to declare martial law in response to what he described as opposition parties’ obstruction of government.

Speaking in court Tuesday, Yoon criticised investigations into the rebellion charges as “frenzied” and mired in “manipulation” and “distortion.”

If found guilty, Yoon will become the third South Korean president convicted of insurrection, following two ex-military leaders convicted over their roles in the 1979 coup.

But even if Yoon is handed a death sentence, it is unlikely to be implemented, as South Korea has observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since 1997.

Yoon also faces several other trials over various criminal charges related to the martial law attempt and other scandals during his time in office.

A Seoul court is expected to deliver a verdict on Friday on an obstruction of justice case, which could see Yoon facing 10 years in prison.

And he faces a trial on charges of aiding the enemy over allegations he ordered drone flights over North Korea to justify his martial law declaration.

Ugandan authorities have imposed a nationwide internet blackout days before presidential elections in which President Yoweri Museveni is expected to prolong his 40-year rule.

A government regulatory body instructed mobile network operators to block public internet access starting at 6pm (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday. Internet monitor NetBlocks later confirmed a “nation-scale disruption to internet connectivity”.

The network outage has heightened concerns about repression in the run-up to the January 15 vote, in which 81-year-old Museveni, Africa’s third-longest-serving leader, is being challenged by pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine.

Musevni’s re-election ‘all but locked down’

Ugandan security personnel have rounded up hundreds of opposition supporters in advance of the vote and repeatedly fired live bullets and tear gas at pro-Wine campaign rallies. Meanwhile, opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who challenged Museveni in four previous elections, is jailed on charges of treason.

The United Nations Human Rights Office has criticised Uganda’s authorities for creating an environment of “widespread repression and intimidation” before the vote.

Brussels-based International Crisis Group has assessed that Museveni, “with his firm grip on the levers of state power … has re-election all but locked down.”

Wine views his candidacy as a campaign “against impunity,” reported Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi from Kampala, Uganda. But “he doesn’t believe that he is going to get a free or fair election.”

Government bans two NGOs from operating

Museveni’s government said security forces are acting to stop what it described as lawless conduct by opposition supporters. The Uganda Communications Commission defended the internet shutdown as necessary to “curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks.”

In addition to cutting off the internet, the government on Tuesday ordered two local rights groups that have been critical of authorities – Chapter Four Uganda and Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda – to halt their work.

The state-run National Bureau for NGOs accused Chapter Four Uganda of engaging in activities “prejudicial” to Uganda’s security and “should cease operations … with immediate effect”.

Kristof Titeca, a Uganda expert based at Antwerp University, said the government’s clampdown has made it “too dangerous” for the opposition to effectively organise.

“The price people have to pay for engaging in political opposition has become very high,” said Titeca.

Uganda also blocked internet access during its last election in 2021 – a vote marred by reports of state violence and electoral manipulation. Authorities had repeatedly promised the internet would remain available this time, saying as recently as January 5 that “claims suggesting otherwise are false, misleading, and intended to cause unnecessary fear and tension among the public”.

United States President Donald Trump has said that a “day of reckoning and retribution” is coming to Minnesota, as outrage and protests have continued days after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the state’s largest city, Minneapolis.

Trump did not provide further details on the statement, which came at the end of a lengthy screed on the president’s Truth Social account on Tuesday.

The apparent threat represented the latest pledge to come down hard on the midwestern state in the wake of the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent last week.

The administration on Monday promised to send hundreds more ICE agents to Minneapolis, where federal officer ranks already dwarf local law enforcement, in what city and state leaders have called a dangerous escalation.

“All the patriots of ICE want to do is remove them from your neighborhood and send them back to the prisons and mental institutions from where they came, most in foreign Countries who illegally entered the USA though Sleepy Joe Biden’s HORRIBLE Open Border’s Policy,” Trump said, referring to his predecessor, US President Joe Biden.

“FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!” he said.

The phrase was quickly quoted by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees domestic US immigration enforcement, in a post on X.

Later on Tuesday, a federal judge was set to hear arguments in a lawsuit filed by Minnesota’s Attorney General and the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, alleging that the surge of immigration agents violates residents’ freedom of speech while trampling on the state’s constitutionally protected authorities.

“People are being racially profiled, harassed, terrorised, and assaulted,” the state’s attorney general said in a statement upon filing the lawsuit.

“Schools have gone into lockdown. Businesses have been forced to close. Minnesota police are spending countless hours dealing with the chaos ICE is causing.”

“This federal invasion of the Twin Cities has to stop, so today I am suing DHS to bring it to an end,” it said.

Ongoing outrage

Daily protests have continued across the state since Good’s killing during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis.

Within moments of the shooting, the Trump administration labelled Good a “domestic terrorist”, while claiming the officer was acting in self-defence after the 37-year-old “weaponised her vehicle”.

Widely circulated video evidence quickly cast doubt on their claims, with many observers saying recordings appeared to show Good attempting to flee the scene in her Honda Pilot SUV when the agent opened fire. Questions have also been raised over the conduct of the agents involved, including a series of actions that appeared to escalate the situation.

Last week, local officials decried the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) unorthodox move to block an independent state investigatory body from taking part in a probe of Good’s killing. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the move – coupled with the Trump administration’s comments – raises questions over the integrity of any conclusions reached.

On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council also called for a “prompt, independent and transparent” investigation into the incident.

Prior to Good’s killing, the Trump administration had surged immigration agents to Minnesota as the president increasingly focused on alleged fraud in the large Somali-American community in the state, at times employing racist rhetoric as he sent 2,000 immigration agents to the area.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration announced it was revoking so-called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia, a special designation that protects individuals from deportation due to unsafe conditions in their home country.