South Korea court sentences ex-president to 5 years in martial law case

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A court in South Korea has sentenced the country’s former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to five years in jail after finding him guilty on charges stemming from his declaration of martial law in December 2024.

Yoon was found guilty on Friday of charges that include obstructing authorities from executing an arrest warrant related to his martial law declaration, as well as fabricating official documents and failing to comply with the legal process required to impose martial law.

At Seoul’s Central District Court on Friday, Judge Baek Dae-hyun said Yoon had failed to uphold the Constitution and rule of law.

“Despite having a duty, above all others, to uphold the Constitution and observe the rule of law as president, the defendant instead displayed an attitude that disregarded the… Constitution,” Baek said.

“The defendant’s culpability is extremely grave,” he said.

Yoon now has seven days to appeal the verdict, the judge added.

Speaking outside the court immediately after the ruling, one of Yoon’s lawyers, Yoo Jung-hwa, said the former president would appeal the verdict.

“We express regret that the decision was made in a politicised manner,” she said.

The court’s ruling is the first related to a range of criminal charges Yoon faces over his botched attempt to impose martial law, which lasted only around six hours but sent shockwaves through South Korean society, which was long considered one of the world’s most stable democracies.

Al Jazeera’s Jack Barton, reporting from South Korea’s capital Seoul, said Yoon’s supporters had gathered outside the court on Friday and were chanting to express their unhappiness with the verdict.

“It’s not a good sign,” Barton said, explaining that the ex-president still faces the most serious charge of insurrection, which carries a death sentence.

“These charges are not really related to the main event. That is the insurrection trial that is still ongoing,” he said.

“So, guilty on all of those charges and, again, this feeds into that main trial [for insurrection]. We are expecting that verdict in February,” he added.

Yoon was previously impeached, arrested and then dismissed as president after his short-lived martial law attempt, which triggered huge public protests calling for his removal.

But Yoon has remained defiant and has insisted he broke no laws.

He has argued in court that it was within his powers as president to declare martial law and that the action was aimed at sounding the alarm over the obstruction of government work by opposition parties.

South Korea’s official Yonhap News Agency reported on Friday that the five-year sentence handed to Yoon was half of what had been requested by Special Counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team of lawyers.

Yonhap also said the guilty ruling is likely to have implications for the verdict in Yoon’s insurrection trial, which is due next month.