19/07/2025
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19/07/2025
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Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, (center) arrives at a court to attend a hearing to review his arrest warrant requested by special prosecutors in Seoul, South Korea on July 9. (AP)
SEOUL, South Korea, July 19, (AP): South Korea’s ousted conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted Saturday on additional criminal charges related to his ill-fated imposition of martial law, about three months after he was formally thrown out of office.
Yoon’s additional indictments mean he will remain in jail for up to six months as he faces a trial at the Seoul Central District Court on his Dec. 3 martial law declaration that plunged South Korea into huge political turmoil. Yoon was sent back to prison last week after the Seoul court approved his arrest warrant requested by a team of investigators headed by independent counsel Cho Eun-suk.
Cho’s team indicted Yoon on abuse of power that obstructed the rights of some of his Cabinet members. The charge was imposed because Yoon summoned only select Cabinet members to approve his emergency martial law when South Korean law requires approval of all Cabinet members for such a measure, Park Ji-young, a senior investigator at Cho’s team, told a briefing.
Park said Yoon was also charged with fabricating an official document in an attempt to satisfy a formal requirement for a martial law declaration before he eventually destroyed it.
After declaring martial law, Yoon sent troops and police officers to the opposition-controlled National Assembly, but enough lawmakers managed to enter an assembly chamber and voted down his decree, forcing his Cabinet to lift it. Yoon was later impeached by the assembly, with some of his ruling party lawmakers voting to suspend his presidential powers.
Yoon has argued his decree was a desperate attempt to draw public support of his fight against the "wickedness” of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, which had obstructed his agenda, impeached top officials and slashed the government’s budget bill. He earlier called the National Assembly "a den of criminals” and "anti-state forces.”
