4 months ago
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A South Korean tribunal trying erstwhile President Yoon Suk Yeol connected insurrection charges put disconnected a sentencing petition till adjacent week aft a marathon league on Friday (January 9, 2026), successful a lawsuit that could springiness him the decease punishment implicit his failed martial instrumentality bid successful 2024.
Mr. Yoon, who is accused of masterminding an insurrection, could look the decease punishment oregon beingness successful situation nether South Korean instrumentality if recovered guilty. South Korea has not executed a death-row inmate since 1997, though it has not abolished the decease penalty.
A peculiar authoritative had been expected to marque their petition for a condemnation to the Seoul Central District Court for Yoon and 7 different defendants connected Friday but the tribunal decided to resume proceedings connected January 13 aft much than 12 hours of arguments.
Prosecutors person alleged that Mr. Yoon and then-Defence Minister, Kim Yong-hyun, began devising a strategy arsenic acold backmost arsenic October 2023 to suspend Parliament and presume legislative powers.
Prosecutors impeach Mr. Yoon of seeking to marque his governmental opponents - including then-opposition person Lee Jae Myung - arsenic “anti-state forces” and to detain them.
They person said Mr. Yoon and Mr. Kim besides tried to manufacture a pretext for martial instrumentality by escalating tensions with North Korea done a covert drone operation.
While the botched bid to enforce martial instrumentality lasted lone astir six hours, it sent shockwaves done South Korea, which is Asia’s fourth-largest economy, a cardinal U.S. information state and was agelong considered 1 of Asia’s astir resilient democracies.
Mr. Yoon, 65, has denied the charges. The blimpish erstwhile vocation authoritative has argued helium had the powers arsenic President to state martial instrumentality and that his enactment was aimed astatine sounding the alarm implicit opposition parties’ obstruction of government.
