Court Sentences Former Korean President Yoon to Life In Prison Due to Failed Martial Law Attempt

I really cannot feel bad for Yoon when he was stupid enough to launch such an incompetent martial law bid that got him impeached. When former President Park Geun-hye was imprisoned I felt bad for her because the reasons she was jailed were very suspect. I doubt Yoon will do life in prison because he will eventually get pardoned whenever another conservative leader becomes President, but he will be sitting in jail for quite a number of years until that happens:

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.

he 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.

“It is difficult to deny that former President Yoon inwardly aimed to make the National Assembly unable to function properly for a considerable period by blocking and paralyzing the National Assembly’s activities by means of sending troops to the National Assembly to seal it off and arrest key politicians,” Jee Kui-youn, the presiding judge, said during the hearing attended by Yoon and broadcast live on national television.

“It is also recognized that he staged a riot by sending the military.”

Under the Constitution, an insurrection is defined as an act aimed at removing state authority from part or all of the country or the staging of a riot with the purpose of subverting the Constitution.

The court said the declaration of martial law in itself cannot constitute an insurrection, but that in Yoon’s case, the charge held because he aimed to paralyze the functions of a constitutional body.

It also stressed that at the core of the case was Yoon’s deployment of troops to the National Assembly.

Yonhap

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