South Korean prosecutors seek death penalty for former President Yoon Suk Yeol over martial law

The special team of prosecutors in charge of the insurrection case against the ousted former president Yoon Suk Yeol has requested this Tuesday the death penalty for the former president in relation to the controversial martial law decreed in December 2024 and which cost him his position months later.

Prosecutors have pointed out Yoon as the person responsible for leading an insurrection process by declaring the aforementioned law, which led to the deployment of troops for several hours in the vicinity of Parliament and unleashed a serious political crisis internally, according to information from the newspaper ‘The Korea Times’.

In their application, they have argued that Yoon was ultimately responsible for “attempting to undermine the constitutional order by mobilizing the Armed Forces and Police to suppress the National Assembly.” Thus, they have defended that these actions represented a “serious threat to democracy and that they justify the harshest penalty provided for by South Korean law.”

This petition, which was raised during a court hearing before the Seoul District Court, marks a turning point in one of the most controversial judicial cases in the history of the Asian country.

The former president has also been charged with abuse of power and obstruction of justice, and prosecutors insist that he went ahead with the imposition of a law reserved for times of war, national emergencies or major crises. However, Yoon argued at all times that his decision was constitutional and legal, arguments that have been rejected by prosecutors.

The former head of state has been accused of having taken measures to promote the arrest of relevant political figures during that day of December 3, among them the speaker of Parliament, Woo Won Shik, and the then opposition leader (and now president of the country), Lee Jae Myung.

Since then, several ministers and senior officials of his Government have been charged as accomplices for playing a fundamental role in allegedly instigating the insurrection.

Under the South Korean Penal Code, the crime of leading acts of insurrection leads to three possible scenarios: the death penalty, life imprisonment or life imprisonment free of forced labor.