SEOUL, Jan 14 (Bernama-Yonhap) – South Korea’s special counsel team has requested the death penalty for former president Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed imposition of martial law, describing him as the ringleader of an insurrection who sought to remain in power by seizing control of the judiciary and legislature, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team made the request during the final hearing of Yoon’s trial at the Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday, just over a year after the then president declared martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, with the stated aim of eradicating anti-state forces.
The court plans to hand down its ruling on Yoon’s case on Feb 19.
“Former President Yoon declared martial law with the purpose of remaining in power for a long time by seizing the judiciary and legislature,” assistant special counsel Park Eok-su said.
“The nature of the crime is serious as he mobilised physical resources that should have been used only in the interest of the national collective.”
As the sentencing request was made, the former president showed a faint smile from the dock, while some of his supporters in the gallery cursed loudly.
In his final 90-minute statement, Yoon reiterated his claim of innocence, arguing that the exercise of a president’s constitutional state-of-emergency powers cannot constitute an insurrection.
“It was not a military dictatorship that suppresses citizens, but an effort to safeguard freedom and sovereignty, and revive the constitutional order,” Yoon said.
He also criticised the investigations and indictment against him as a “frenzied sword dance characterised by purges and repression.”
Yoon was indicted last January on charges of leading an insurrection through his declaration of martial law.
He was accused of staging a riot with the aim of subverting the Constitution after conspiring with former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun and others, and illegally declaring martial law in the absence of war or an equivalent national emergency.
In particular, he was charged with mobilising troops and police to seal off the National Assembly compound and prevent lawmakers from voting down his decree, and ordering the arrest and detention of the National Assembly speaker and the then leaders of the ruling and main opposition parties.
Yoon became the first sitting president to be indicted while in physical detention in January last year.
He was released in March following a court order that cancelled his arrest, but was taken into custody again in July on additional charges related to his martial law attempt.
“Former President Yoon did not reflect on how his actions led to a grave violation of the constitutional order and democracy,” Park said. “The biggest victims were the people who defended this through sacrifice in the face of dictatorship and authoritarianism.”
The hearing began in the morning with an examination of documentary evidence by Yoon’s lawyers, which ran for about 11 hours before the special counsel team delivered its final opinion and sentencing recommendation. It concluded at 2:25 am on Wednesday.
The session resumed what was intended to be the final hearing last Friday, which was suspended after lawyers for the former defence minister, one of seven other defendants in the trial, delayed proceedings by spending eight hours examining documentary evidence alone.
On Tuesday, the special prosecutors demanded life imprisonment for the former minister on charges of playing a key role in an insurrection through his involvement in the brief imposition of martial law.
For former National Police Agency chief Cho Ji-ho, the team sought 20 years in prison on the same charge, while for former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief Kim Bong-sik, it sought 15 years, and for retired Army major general Noh Sang-won, a former commander of the Defence Intelligence Command, 30 years.
Amnesty International has categorised South Korea as a death penalty abolitionist in practice, as the punishment has not been carried out since December 1997.
Former president Chun Doo-hwan also stood trial on insurrection charges in 1996, when the death penalty was recommended for his role in the 1979 coup that brought him to power and the military’s violent suppression of the Gwangju democratisation movement in 1980.
-- BERNAMA-YONHAP
