Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first instance!
From a legal perspective
The court determined that Yoon Suk-yeol's declaration of an emergency martial law, his order to block the National Assembly, and his attempt to arrest political figures constituted the crime of internal rebellion, and the charge of "mastermind" was established.
Although the prosecution had previously requested the death penalty, the court ultimately chose life imprisonment.
Considering that South Korea has not executed the death penalty for nearly 30 years, it is effectively a country that has abolished the death penalty, and life imprisonment is actually the maximum punishment.
This verdict carries significant historical irony: when Yoon Suk-yeol was a university student, he once sentenced Chun Doo-hwan to life imprisonment in a mock trial, yet now he has fallen into the same charges. The prosecution also emphasized that despite the precedent set by Chun Doo-hwan, this case still occurred, and strict punishment is necessary.
This verdict is a first-instance rather than a final judgment, and Yoon Suk-yeol has a high probability of appealing. Although the possibility of a reversal is low, Yoon Suk-yeol is likely to take a chance. After the first instance, an appeal is inevitable, and the final sentence may still be subject to change.
According to South Korean law, if a former president is convicted, as long as it is not the death penalty, there is a possibility of pardon. Although there have been precedents of pardons for former presidents, this case is different: the ruling party is pushing to exclude "internal rebellion" from the scope of amnesty, and the current president, Lee Jae-myung, was the target of Yoon Suk-yeol's arrest. Therefore, the possibility of a pardon in the short term is extremely low.
It is particularly worth noting that Yoon Suk-yeol is also involved in multiple criminal cases, and high-ranking officials such as former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo have already been sentenced, indicating that the cleanup in South Korea's political circle is continuing.
The "Blue House curse" continues: Yoon Suk-yeol has become the third former South Korean president to be imprisoned, following Chun Doo-hwan and Park Geun-hye, exposing the flaws in the power restraint mechanism and the political cycle of "post-tenure reckoning." This trial has gone beyond Yoon Suk-yeol's personal fate, becoming a milestone event for South Korea's democratic system in dealing with power abuse.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1857540102410240/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.