SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean prosecutors indicted President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday for leading an insurrection with the short-lived imposition of martial law on Dec. 3, the main opposition party said.
“The prosecution has decided to indict Yoon Suk Yeol, who is accused of being a leader of the insurrection,” Democratic Party spokesman Han Min-soo said at a news conference. “The punishment of the leader of the insurrection finally begins.”
The indictment was also reported by South Korean media.
Anti-corruption investigators last week recommended indicting jailed Yoon, who was impeached by Parliament and suspended from office following the incident.
Yoon’s lawyers have urged prosecutors to immediately release him from what they call unlawful detention.
Under criminal investigation, he has been in custody since becoming the first sitting president to be arrested on January 15.
Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. The offense is punishable by life imprisonment or death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades.
Yoon and his lawyers argued at a Constitutional Court hearing last week in his impeachment trial that he never intended to fully impose martial law, but that he had only intended these measures as a warning to break the political deadlock.
Alongside its criminal proceedings, the top court will determine whether to remove Yoon from office or restore his presidential powers, with 180 days to decide.
South Korea’s opposition-led parliament impeached Yoon on Dec. 14, making him the second conservative president to be impeached in the country.
Yoon repealed his martial law about six hours after lawmakers from the main opposition party, confronting soldiers in Parliament, voted against the decree.
Soldiers equipped with rifles, body armor and night vision equipment were seen entering the Parliament building through broken windows during the dramatic clash.
