Seoul, Jan 5 (IANS) South Korean former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s trial on charges of leading an insurrection through his short-lived imposition of martial law is set to conclude this week amid keen interest in the level of punishment he will face, including the possibility of the death penalty.
The Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to hold four hearings this week — on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday — in the insurrection trial of Yoon, former Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun, former National Police Agency chief Cho Ji-ho and five others, according to legal sources.
Kim, Cho and the five others are accused of playing a key role in an insurrection in connection with the December 2024 martial law attempt, and their two trials were merged with Yoon’s last week.
On Monday and Tuesday, the court is scheduled to complete its questioning of the former defence minister before finalising deliberations Wednesday and Friday.
Due to the large number of defendants, the final hearings are expected to run late into the night, though in the case of former police chief Cho, who is battling blood cancer, his final arguments could be postponed to January 22.
Legal sources anticipate the court’s sentencing will come in early February.
In Yoon’s case, special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team will likely request one of three types of punishment allowed by law for the ringleader of an insurrection — the death penalty, life imprisonment or life imprisonment without forced labor.
Yoon is charged with conspiring with the former defence minister and others to stage a riot with the aim of subverting the Constitution by illegally declaring martial law in the absence of war or an equivalent national emergency.
In particular, he is charged with mobilising troops and the police to seal off the National Assembly compound and prevent lawmakers from voting down his decree, and ordering the arrest and detention of the National Assembly speaker and the then leaders of the ruling and main opposition parties.
Yoon became the first sitting president to be indicted with physical detention in January last year, Yonhap news agency reported.
He was released in March following a court order that canceled his arrest but was taken into custody again in July on additional charges related to his martial law attempt.
–IANS
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