A South Korean court will rule Friday on whether former president Yoon Suk Yeol obstructed justice during his disastrous martial law declaration and in its chaotic aftermath, the first in a series of verdicts for the disgraced ex-leader.
Yoon briefly suspended civilian rule in South Korea for the first time in more than four decades on December 3, 2024, prompting massive protests and a showdown in parliament.
Now ousted from power, he faces multiple trials for actions taken during that debacle and in the turmoil that followed.
Among them are charges he committed obstruction of justice by allegedly excluding cabinet members from a martial law planning meeting as well as blocking investigators from detaining him.
Seoul’s Central District Court is scheduled to deliver its ruling on that case at 2:00 pm (0500 GMT) on Friday.
The case mainly centres on accusations that Yoon instructed presidential security personnel to block investigators from entering his residential compound to execute an arrest warrant in January last year.
The first attempt failed after authorities encountered buses parked to block the entrance. They later succeeded in entering the compound and bringing Yoon in for questioning.
Prosecutors have called for a 10-year prison term, while Yoon has insisted no law was broken.
The sentencing will be aired live.
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 -- South Korea has had an unofficial moratorium on executions since 1997.
Yoon was seen smiling in court as the prosecutors demanded the punishment.
And 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 February 19.
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.
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