Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to five years in prison for obstruction of justice and abuse of power, stemming from his attempt to block an arrest warrant and his unconstitutional declaration of martial law.

A Seoul court has sentenced former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison for obstruction of the execution of an arrest warrant, abuse of power, and the fabrication and destruction of official documents.

Yoon’s declaration of martial law in December 2024 led protesters and lawmakers to storm the Parliament to force a vote against the decree, which the Supreme Court quickly ruled unconstitutional.

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The conservative leader was subsequently impeached, removed from office, and imprisoned. He has always maintained that everything he did followed a plan to “restore democratic order,” claiming the country was under siege by the opposition and “anti-state” forces.

Friday’s verdict hinged on Yoon’s actions last January to avoid arrest, which included barricading himself and ordering his bodyguards to obstruct investigators.

According to the indictment, the former President ordered the Presidential Security Service to block the execution of the arrest warrant, using a state body as a personal shield. For the judges, this was not a defensive maneuver but a frontal assault on the rule of law.

Last month, the team of special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk requested a ten-year prison sentence for obstruction of justice and other related crimes. In her closing argument, Cho accused Yoon of committing a “serious crime” by “privatizing” public institutions to conceal and justify allegedly criminal acts.

Yoon was also accused of violating the rights of nine ministers who were excluded from the meeting reviewing the plan to declare martial law.

The next major phase in Yoon’s legal saga is the insurrection trial, with a verdict due February 19, for which prosecutors have requested the death penalty. 

The insurrection hearing will be resolved on February 19, but it will not be the end of Yoon’s legal journey. The former President faces a total of eight trials related to the attempt to impose martial law, alleged corruption cases affecting his wife, and the death of a marine in 2023 -a matter that also implicates his administration.

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