South Korean prosecutors on Sunday indicted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of leading an insurrection by declaring martial law on December 3, 2024.
The decision comes a week after anti-corruption investigators recommended that Yoon be formally charged.
“The prosecution has decided to indict Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing charges of being a ringleader of insurrection,” Democratic Party spokesman Han Min-soo told a press conference.
“The punishment of the ringleader of insurrection now begins finally,” he added.
After declaring martial law, Yoon sent troops and police into the Assembly. However, enough lawmakers still managed to enter an Assembly chamber to unanimously vote down Yoon’s decree, forcing his cabinet to rescind it.
The Constitutional Court is separately considering whether to formally dismiss Yoon or reinstate him as president.
The crime of insurrection is one of the few criminal charges for which the president of South Korea does not enjoy immunity. It is punishable by life imprisonment or death.
Yoon has been in solitary confinement since becoming the first sitting president to be arrested on Jan. 15 after days of defiant, armed standoff between his security detail and arresting officials.
Yoon, a conservative, has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing. He called his martial law a legitimate act of governance meant to raise public awareness of the danger of a liberal-controlled National Assembly obstructing his agenda and impeaching top officials.
Over the weekend a court twice refused prosecutors’ request to extend his detention while they conducted further investigation, but with the charges they have again requested that he be kept in custody, media reports said.
Yoon’s lawyers had urged the prosecutors to release him immediately from what they call illegal custody.
“The prosecution has decided to indict Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing charges of being a ringleader of insurrection,” Democratic Party spokesman Han Min-soo told a press conference. “The punishment of the ringleader of insurrection now begins finally.”
Yoon and his lawyers argued at a Constitutional Court hearing last week in his impeachment trial that he never intended to fully impose martial law but had only meant the measures as a warning to break political deadlock.
Now, the top court will determine whether to remove Yoon from office or reinstate his presidential powers, with 180 days to decide.
South Korea’s opposition-led parliament impeached Yoon on Dec. 14, making him the second conservative president to be impeached in the country.
Yoon rescinded his martial law after about six hours after lawmakers, confronting soldiers in parliament, voted down the decree.
If Yoon is removed from office, a presidential election would be held within 60 days
