South Korean prosecutors seek 10-year sentence for ousted president Yoon
An independent counsel on Friday demanded a 10-year prison term for South Korea’s ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol in the first of seven criminal cases related to his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law in 2024 and other allegations that flared when he was in office.
The first of Mr Yoon’s trials to complete covers charges including his defiance of authorities’ attempts to investigate and detain him.
Mr Yoon denies all charges and his lawyers have argued that the detainment warrant was invalid and illegal.
They called the 10-year term request “excessive” and accused independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such a harsh punishment.
The court is expected to render a verdict as early as next month.
Mr Yoon faces other trials on accusations ranging from corruption and favour trading to rebellion, a grave charge that is punishable by life imprisonment or execution. The rebellion trial is also nearing an end.
Mr Yoon’s martial law enactment brought armed troops onto Seoul streets and triggered South Korea’s most serious political crisis in decades.
Martial law lasted only a few hours, as politicians managed to enter the National Assembly and voted to lift his decree. Mr Yoon was impeached by the opposition-controlled parliament later in December 2024 before he was formally dismissed as president upon an Constitutional Court ruling in April.
On Friday, Mr Cho’s team requested the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Mr Yoon to 10 years in prison on charges of obstruction of official duties, abuse of power, falsification of official documents and destruction of evidence.
Mr Yoon remained at his residence and hindered authorities’ attempts to execute a warrant for his detention for weeks after his impeachment.
The standoff caused worries about physical clashes between Mr Yoon’s presidential security service and those attempting to detain him and further deepened a national divide.
Park Eok-su, a senior investigator on Mr Cho’s team, called Mr Yoon’s actions “an unprecedented obstruction of official duties” during Friday’s court session.
Mr Yoon also faces charges that he sidestepped a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting before declaring martial law, and that he fabricated documents including the martial law proclamation and ordered data deleted from phones used by those involved in his martial law imposition.
Mr Yoon has denied those charges and maintained that his decree was meant to draw public support of his struggle against the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, which impeached some of his top officials and obstructed his agenda.
Wrapping up a six-month probe last week, Mr Cho’s team said Mr Yoon plotted for over a year to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and monopolise power.
Mr Yoon’s other trials deal with charges including the ex-leader ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately stoke tensions and justify his plans to declare martial law and committing perjury in the trial of his prime minster.
Mr Yoon also faces charges that he tried to manipulate the investigation into a marine’s drowning in 2023 and received free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favour.
Mr Yoon has said he was not informed of such drone flights and denied wrongdoing in the influence-peddling scandal.
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