The death penalty was requested this Tuesday, January 13, against Yoon Suk-yeol, former president of South Korea, who is being prosecuted for attempting to impose martial law in December 2024.

An extremely harsh sentence. South Korean prosecutors requested the death penalty for former president Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday, January 13. In December 2024, he attempted to impose martial law in South Korea.

Prosecutors accused the former conservative head of state of leading an "insurrection" motivated by a "thirst for power aimed at establishing a dictatorship" in the country. They also accused the 65-year-old former leader of showing "no remorse" for acts that threatened "constitutional order and democracy."

"No mitigating circumstances can be taken into account when pronouncing the sentence and a severe punishment (...) is necessary," concluded the prosecutors who called for the death penalty, which is still in force in South Korea even though no executions have taken place since 1997.

A verdict is expected in February 2026.

The final hearing in Yoon Suk-yeol's main trial began Tuesday morning, allowing him to make a final statement before the case is adjourned for deliberation. The verdict is expected next month.

As a reminder, on the evening of December 3, 2024, Yoon Suk-yeol stunned South Korea by unexpectedly announcing on television the imposition of martial law, sending troops to Parliament to silence him.

He reversed course a few hours later, as a sufficient number of deputies managed to sneak into the chamber surrounded by soldiers and vote to suspend his decree.

A career prosecutor, Yoon Suk-yeol has been on trial in Seoul since February 2025 along with seven other people, including his former defense minister and the former police chief.

The former president's defense team on Tuesday compared him to great historical figures such as the Italian scientists Galileo Galilei and Giordano Bruno, who were unjustly condemned.

In January 2025, Yoon Suk-yeol became the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested and imprisoned. He barricaded himself for weeks in his Seoul residence under the protection of his close guard, even thwarting an initial raid by authorities on his home.

The budget is at the heart of his decision

Officially removed from office in April 2025 by the Constitutional Court, after months of massive protests and political chaos, Yoon Suk-yeol had justified martial law, an unprecedented measure in South Korea since the military dictatorships of the 1980s, by the fact that the opposition-controlled Parliament was blocking the budget.

In a televised address, he claimed to be acting to protect the country from "North Korean communist forces" and "eliminate elements hostile to the state."

Released in March due to a procedural error, Yoon Suk-yeol was again imprisoned in July, for fear that he would destroy evidence.

If found guilty, he will be the third former South Korean president to be convicted of the crime of insurrection, after Generals Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo for a coup in 1979.