▲ Former President Yoon Suk Yeol (Yonhap)
▲ The insurrection trial of former President Yoon Suk Yeol is held at the Seoul Central District Court in the capital on Jan. 9, 2026, in this photo provided by the court. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

ex-president-trial

Ex-President Yoon set to receive 1st verdict on martial law bid

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Yonhap) -- Former President Yoon Suk Yeol is set to receive the first verdict Thursday on whether his 2024 imposition of martial law constituted an insurrection following special prosecutors' recommendation of the death penalty.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled to be held at the Seoul Central District Court at 3 p.m. with the jailed former president in attendance and the proceedings broadcast live on national television.

Yoon was indicted in January last year on charges of leading an insurrection through his brief imposition of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, which lasted six hours.

He is accused of mobilizing troops and the police to seal off the National Assembly compound with the aim of preventing lawmakers from voting down his decree, and ordering the arrest of the National Assembly speaker and the then leaders of the ruling and main opposition parties, among other things.

According to his indictment, Yoon conspired with former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and others to stage a riot aimed at subverting the Constitution and illegally declared martial law in the absence of war or an equivalent national emergency.

During the trial's final hearing last month, special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team requested the death penalty for the former president, saying he deserved the maximum sentence for declaring martial law "with the purpose of remaining in power for a long time by seizing the judiciary and legislature."

"The nature of the crime is serious as he mobilized physical resources that should have been used only in the interest of the national collective," the team said.

Yoon reiterated his claim of innocence in his final statement, arguing that the exercise of a president's constitutional state emergency right 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," he said.

Under the Constitution, an insurrection is defined as an act aimed at removing state authority from part or all of the country or the staging of a riot with the purpose of subverting the Constitution.

The court is widely expected to hand down a heavy punishment for Yoon, as it has already described the martial law attempt as an act of insurrection in the trials of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, who are charged with playing key roles in the event.

The death penalty has not been carried out in South Korea since 1997.

Seven other defendants will receive their first verdicts in addition to Yoon on Thursday, including the former defense minister, former National Police Agency chief Cho Ji-ho and former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief Kim Bong-sik.

All have been charged in connection with the martial law episode.

Yoon has already been sentenced to five years in prison in a separate trial on charges that include his alleged obstruction of investigators' attempt to detain him last year.

The courtroom where Thursday's proceedings will be held is the same place where former President Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death in 1996 for his roles in a 1979 coup that installed him in power and the military's violent suppression of the Gwangju democratization movement in 1980.

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