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Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The ruling, delivered by Seoul Central District Court Judge Jee Kui-youn, was lighter than the death penalty prosecutors sought at the trial’s final hearing in January.<\/a> <\/p>\n Jee said in the verdict that Yoon led an insurrection and committed acts to subvert the country’s constitutional order.<\/p>\n The court added that Yoon “took the lead in planning the crime and involved a large number of people,” and that it was “difficult to see any sign of remorse from the defendant, who also refused to appear in court.”<\/p>\n Yoon had previously reportedly refused<\/a> to appear in court for questioning last year. <\/p>\n The court also found Yoon had ordered South Korea’s military to capture individuals during the martial law declaration, including the current president Lee Jae Myung. <\/p>\n Yoon also had the intention to “paralyze” the country’s parliament by deploying troops to blockade the National Assembly and arrest key politicians, Jee said.<\/p>\n Five others were also sentenced, including former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison.<\/p>\n The defendants may appeal the ruling within a week. <\/p>\n The sentence follows a separate ruling on Jan. 16, when Yoon was given a five-year prison term<\/a> for attempting to obstruct his arrest after he was impeached and suspended from office. <\/p>\n Other senior officials have been sentenced over the failed martial law bid. Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was sentenced to 23 years in prison, while former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min received a seven-year sentence.<\/p>\n Yoon was the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested in an operation<\/a> involving over 3,000 police personnel that involved a standoff with presidential security agents. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yoon reportedly maintained his innocence, arguing the declaration was within his constitutional authority and was intended to “safeguard freedom and sovereignty.”<\/p>\n He imposed South Korea’s first instance of martial law in 44 years during a late-night address on Dec. 3, claiming that the then-opposition Democratic Party of Korea was engaging in “anti-state activities” and colluding with “North Korean\u00a0communists.”<\/p>\n Troops were deployed to the country’s National Assembly, while soldiers and police clashed with protesters outside the compound. <\/p>\n Television footage showed special forces breaking windows to gain access to the chamber, while parliamentary staffers used furniture to barricade doors.<\/p>\n Then-defense minister Kim Yong-hyun also reportedly<\/a> ordered troops to “pull people inside the National Assembly building outside.”<\/p>\n But the martial law order was overturned within three hours, after 190 of the 300 National Assembly lawmakers gathered in the chamber and\u00a0unanimously voted to do so<\/a>. Yoon eventually lifted martial law about six hours after announcing it.<\/p>\n He was impeached 11 days later<\/a> and removed from office<\/a> on April 4, 2025. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – APRIL 21: Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives for his criminal trial on insurrection charges at a courtroom of the Seoul Central District Court on April 21, 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. The second trial regarding former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s charge of leading a rebellion hold at the Seoul … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Former-South-Korean-president-Yoon-Suk-Yeol-gets-life-sentence.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21061,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21059\/revisions\/21061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Martial law attempt<\/h2>\n
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