A South Korean court on Friday sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison after finding him guilty of obstructing authorities from arresting him following his failed attempt to impose martial law in December 2024.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Yoon unlawfully mobilised the presidential security service to block investigators from executing an arrest warrant linked to his martial law declaration.
The verdict was delivered in televised proceedings.
The 65-year-old former prosecutor was also convicted of fabricating official documents and failing to follow the constitutional legal process required to declare martial law, which includes deliberation at a formal cabinet meeting.
The ruling marks the first court decision related to the criminal cases stemming from Yoon’s short-lived martial law bid and can be appealed.
“The defendant abused his enormous influence as president to prevent the execution of legitimate warrants through officials from the Security Service,” the presiding judge said, adding that Yoon had effectively used state officers for personal protection and gain.
Yoon, whose hair has turned grey and who appeared visibly slimmer than during earlier court appearances, listened quietly as the sentence was read in a packed courtroom filled with supporters. He showed no visible reaction.
Outside the court, Yoon’s lawyer Yoo Jung-hwa said the former president would appeal the ruling, describing the decision as politically motivated.
Prosecutors declined to comment on whether they would file their own appeal, which South Korean law allows.
In a separate ongoing case, prosecutors have sought the death penalty for Yoon, accusing him of masterminding an insurrection by attempting to impose military rule without justification and suspend parliament.
Yoon, who is currently held at the Seoul Detention Center on the outskirts of the capital, has maintained that declaring martial law fell within his presidential powers and said the move was intended to warn against what he described as obstruction by opposition parties.
Ahead of the hearing, dozens of supporters gathered outside the court complex, holding placards calling Yoon a victim of a political witch hunt and insisting he remained the country’s legitimate president.
Police maintained a heavy presence in the area near Yoon’s upscale Seoul apartment.
Yoon could have faced up to 10 years in prison for obstruction charges linked to an incident in January last year, when he barricaded himself inside his residential compound and ordered security personnel to block investigators.
He was eventually arrested during a second operation involving more than 3,000 police officers — the first time a sitting South Korean president had been arrested.
Within hours of Yoon’s martial law declaration, parliament — including members of his own conservative party — voted to overturn the decree. Lawmakers later impeached him, suspending his powers.
In April last year, the Constitutional Court formally removed him from office, ruling that he had violated the duties of his position.
Although Yoon’s martial law order lasted only about six hours, it sent shockwaves through South Korea, a key U.S. ally, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, and a country long regarded as one of the world’s most resilient democracies.
Yoon joins a list of former South Korean leaders who have been convicted and jailed, including Chun Doo-hwan, a former military ruler sentenced to death in 1996 for his role in the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in Gwangju in 1980.
Chun’s sentence was later commuted, and he was pardoned after serving two years in prison.
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