South Korea Indicts Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol for Insurrection

South Korean prosecutors formally indicted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of insurrection, stemming from his short-lived imposition of martial law last December, Al Jazeera reports.

The indictment, announced Sunday, follows weeks of investigation into the controversial move that has thrown the country into a political crisis.

According to a statement from the prosecution, Yoon is accused of being the “ringleader of an insurrection” for his actions on December 3. The Democratic Party, the main opposition, quickly echoed this sentiment.

The charge of insurrection is a serious one, carrying a potential sentence of life imprisonment or death, and is one of the few criminal charges for which a South Korean president does not have immunity. While South Korea has not carried out an execution in decades, the severity of the charge underscores the gravity of the situation.

Yoon has been in custody since his arrest on January 15, becoming the first sitting president to be detained. Anticorruption investigators had recommended charging him last week, leading to the formal indictment. Yoon’s legal team has repeatedly argued for his immediate release, claiming he is being held in “illegal custody.”

The events leading to the charges began on December 3rd when Yoon declared martial law, a decision he claims was intended only as a warning to break political deadlock and not a full-scale implementation. However, this was quickly met with fierce resistance from the opposition. Dramatic scenes unfolded at the parliament, where legislators confronted soldiers who had entered the building, some through smashed windows. Armed with rifles, body armour and night-vision equipment, the soldiers added to the sense of crisis. Yoon rescinded the martial law decree after some six hours following a decisive vote by opposition lawmakers in parliament.

Yoon was subsequently impeached by the opposition-led parliament on December 14, making him the second conservative president in South Korea’s history to face such action.

The legal proceedings against Yoon are now two-pronged. In addition to the criminal case, the Constitutional Court is also considering his impeachment. The court has 180 days to decide whether to permanently remove him from office or to reinstate his presidential powers.