South Korea's ex-president jailed for five years over failed martial law bid

FORMER SOUTH KOREAN president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to five years in prison for obstructing justice and other crimes linked to his disastrous martial law declaration in 2024. 

It is the first in a series of verdicts for the disgraced ex-leader, whose brief suspension of civilian rule lasted just six hours, with lawmakers voting it down despite him ordering soldiers to storm parliament to stop them.

Yoon was subsequently impeached by parliament and resisted arrest for weeks, holed up in his guarded residence until he was finally detained in January last year.

He faces multiple trials for actions taken during the failed declaration and the turmoil that followed.

At Seoul’s Central District Court, judge Baek Dae-hyun said he found Yoon guilty of obstruction of justice by blocking investigators from detaining him.

Yoon was also found guilty of excluding cabinet members from a martial law planning meeting.

“Despite having a duty, above all others, to uphold the Constitution and observe the rule of law as president, the defendant instead displayed an attitude that disregarded the… Constitution,” Baek said.

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“The defendant’s culpability is extremely grave.”

But Yoon was not guilty of forging official documents due to lack of evidence, the judge said.

Yoon has seven days to appeal, he added.

Prosecutors had called for a 10-year prison term, while Yoon had insisted no law was broken.

Yoon defiant

It comes days after prosecutors in a separate case demanded Yoon be sentenced to death for his role as the “ringleader of an insurrection” in orchestrating the imposition of martial law.

They argued Yoon deserved the severest possible punishment as he had shown “no remorse” for actions that threatened “constitutional order and democracy”.

If he is found guilty it is highly unlikely the sentence will actually be carried out, as South Korea has had an unofficial moratorium on executions since 1997.

Yoon was seen smiling in court as the prosecutors demanded the punishment.

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The former leader and top prosecutor has remained defiant, saying his martial law declaration was a lawful exercise of his presidential authority.

In closing remarks on Tuesday, he insisted the “exercise of a president’s constitutional emergency powers to protect the nation and uphold the constitutional order cannot be deemed an act of insurrection”.

He accused the then-opposition party of having imposed an “unconstitutional dictatorship” through their control of the legislature.

“There was no other option but to awaken the people, who are the sovereign.”

The court is scheduled to rule on the insurrection charges on 19 February.

Yoon also faces a separate trial on charges of aiding the enemy, over allegations he ordered drone flights over North Korea to bolster his case for declaring martial law.

With reporting from © AFP 2026

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