The prosecutor says the former South Korean leader should face the death penalty because of the marriage law

An independent lawyer on Tuesday sought the death penalty for former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol on treason charges related to his temporary imposition of martial law in December 2024.

Yoon, who was removed from office last April and is in prison, faces eight counts of various criminal charges related to military disobedience and other scandals that erupted during his tenure. Crimes targeting treason are the most important.

Private lawyer Cho Eun-suk’s team asked the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Yoon to death, describing his announcement as “activities against the state” and “coup.” Cho’s team suspected that Yoon intended to extend his rule by disrupting the constitutional structure of the state’s governance arrangements.

Speaking at the same court later, Yoon criticized the investigation into his treason charges, saying they were “confused” and that they involved “fraud” and “distortion.”

Yoon, who participated, reiterated that his decision was a major effort to raise public awareness of what he sees as the danger of the opposition Democratic Party, which used its legal majority to thwart his agenda. He said that using the power of the president in emergency situations cannot be punished as treason.

The court is expected to issue a decision in February. Experts say the court may sentence Yoon to life in prison. South Korea has not executed anyone since 1997, and local courts have rarely issued the death penalty in recent years.

Yoon is the first South Korean president to face a possible death penalty after leaving office, since former military hero Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death in 1996 for leading a military coup in 1979. Chun’s death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, and he was eventually pardoned and released.

Decision, then fall

Yoon’s law, the first of its kind in more than 40 years, brought armed forces to the streets of Seoul to surround the National Assembly and enter election offices. No serious injuries were reported. But the incident evoked painful memories of the dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed rulers used martial law and other emergency decisions to station troops and armored vehicles in public areas to suppress pro-democracy protests.

On the night of Yoon’s declaration of martial law, thousands of people gathered at the National Assembly to protest the decision and demand that he step down. Enough lawmakers, including members of Yoon’s ruling party, were able to enter the assembly hall to vote to overturn the decision.

Observers have described Yoon’s action as political suicide, marking a dramatic fall for the former prosecutor who won South Korea’s presidency in 2022, a year after entering politics.

The National Assembly acquitted him and sent the case to the Constitutional Court, which decided to dismiss him as president.

Yoon’s rule and the subsequent impeachment plunged South Korea into political turmoil, stalled high-level diplomatic talks and rattled its financial markets.

Lee Jae Myung, the former Democratic Party leader who led the call for Yoon’s ouster, became president in a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent consultants to investigate allegations against Yoon, his wife and colleagues.

The President’s office said on Tuesday that it expects the judicial branch to issue a decision on Yoon in accordance with the law, policy and public expectations.

There were allegations that Yoon used martial law to protect his wife, Kim Keon Hee, from a corruption investigation. But at the conclusion of a six-month investigation last month, Cho’s independent team concluded that Yoon had planned for more than a year to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and seize power.