South Korea’s prosecutors yesterday indicted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3, the main opposition party said.
The charges are unprecedented for a South Korean president, and if convicted, Yoon could face years in prison for his shock martial law decree, which sought to ban political and parliamentary activity and control the media.
His move set off a wave of political upheaval in Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a top US ally, with the prime minister also impeached and suspended from power and a number of top military officials indicted for their roles in the alleged insurrection.
The prosecutors’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The indictment was also reported by South Korean media.
Anti-corruption investigators last week recommended charging the jailed Yoon, who was impeached by parliament and suspended from his duties on December 14.
A former top prosecutor himself, Yoon has been in solitary confinement since becoming the first sitting president to be arrested on January 15 after days of defiant, armed standoff between his security detail and arresting officials.
Over the weekend a court twice refused prosecutors’ request to extend his detention while they conducted further investigation, but with the charges they have again requested that he be kept in custody, media reports said.
Yoon’s lawyers had urged the prosecutors to release him immediately from what they call illegal custody.
Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. It is punishable by life imprisonment or death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades.