A South Korean court on Friday sentenced former President Yoon Suk-Yeol to five years in prison, delivering the first criminal verdict stemming from his failed attempt to impose martial law in December 2024, an extraordinary episode that rattled one of Asia’s most stable democracies and abruptly ended his presidency.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Yoon illegally obstructed justice by deploying the presidential security service to block investigators from executing a court-approved arrest warrant issued as part of a criminal probe into his martial law declaration.
Judges also found him guilty of fabricating official documents and bypassing constitutional and legal procedures required for invoking martial law, violations the court said struck at the core of democratic governance.
In sharply worded remarks delivered during televised proceedings, the court said Yoon had weaponized the authority of his office for personal protection rather than public duty.
“The defendant abused his enormous influence as president to prevent the execution of legitimate warrants,” the presiding judge said, adding that Yoon had effectively turned state security personnel, sworn to serve the Republic of Korea, into a private shield against the law.
The ruling marked the first legal judgment related to the cascade of criminal charges facing Yoon since his short-lived but explosive bid to impose martial law.
His legal troubles are far from over.
Prosecutors are pursuing a separate case accusing him of masterminding an insurrection, a charge that carries the possibility of life imprisonment or even the death penalty, though capital punishment is widely viewed as unlikely to be carried out.
Yoon’s defense team immediately said they would appeal, arguing the verdict was politically motivated.
Speaking outside the courthouse, lawyer Yoo Jung-hwa said the former president had acted within what he believed were his constitutional powers.
Yoon has consistently maintained that his declaration of martial law was a necessary warning against what he described as obstruction of state affairs by opposition parties, an argument the court rejected.
The conviction caps a dramatic downfall for Yoon, who was elected president in May 2022 and governed amid persistent political confrontation and scandal.
His presidency collapsed after he stunned the nation on Dec. 3, 2024, by announcing martial law, citing vague threats from “anti-state forces” and making unsubstantiated claims of electoral interference.
Within hours, lawmakers, including members of his own conservative party, voted to overturn the decree, which lasted roughly six hours but left lasting damage.
Yoon then resisted questioning for weeks, defying summonses and barricading himself inside his residential compound.
When investigators attempted to arrest him in January 2025, presidential security personnel blocked their access, triggering a tense standoff that escalated into a massive second operation involving more than 3,000 police officers.
His eventual detention marked the first arrest of a sitting president in South Korean history.
Parliament soon impeached Yoon, suspending his powers and in April the Constitutional Court formally removed him from office, ruling that he had violated the fundamental obligations of the presidency and undermined constitutional order.
Though brief, Yoon’s martial law attempt sent shockwaves through South Korea, a key U.S. security ally, a global economic powerhouse and a nation long regarded as a democratic success story in a region shaped by authoritarian rule.
The episode revived painful historical memories of military coups and emergency rule that many South Koreans believed had been firmly relegated to the past.
Yoon’s conviction also places him firmly within a grim tradition of disgraced South Korean leaders whose presidencies ended in scandal, prosecution or tragedy.
From authoritarian rulers brought down by coups to democratically elected presidents imprisoned for corruption, South Korea’s modern political history has repeatedly shown that its powerful presidency often comes with an equally powerful reckoning.
In a striking historical twist, Yoon himself once stood on the other side of that reckoning.
As a prosecutor, he played a central role in the investigation and imprisonment of former President Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office and later jailed over corruption charges before being pardoned in 2021.
Now, Yoon faces the same institutions he once wielded, with his political legacy defined not by reform or stability, but by a constitutional crisis that shook the nation.
