South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol has filed an appeal against an insurrection conviction stemming from his 2024 martial law declaration, his lawyers said Tuesday.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty last week of leading an insurrection designed to “paralyse” the National Assembly, and sentenced him to life in prison.
Yoon initially branded the verdict “difficult to accept” but did not immediately indicate whether he would appeal.
His legal team said Tuesday they would challenge the verdict.
“We believe we have a responsibility to clearly place on record the problems with this ruling — not only inthe court’s records, but also before the judgement of history in the future,” Yoon’s lawyers said in a statement.
They said they took issue with the prosecution’s “excessive indictment” and would take action against “the contradictory judgement rendered… based on that premise, and the political context surrounding it”.
Last week, presiding judge Ji Gwi-yeon said Yoon sent troops to the National Assembly building in an effort to silence political opponents who had frustrated his attempts to govern.
“The court finds that the intention was to paralyse the assembly for a considerable period,” Ji said.
Yoon was a deeply unpopular president at the time of the martial law crisis.
His party was vastly outmuscled in parliament, which had voted to block budget measures and impeach key figures in his administration.
With support from senior military figures, Yoon dispatched troops to seize control of the assembly building and arrest critics.
The judge said that Yoon “became fixated” on his belief that the opposition “could effectively neutralise the president”.
*
Email *
Website
