Seoul Court Sentences Former President Yoon Suk-yeol to Five Years for Botched Martial Law Power Grab

A Seoul court on Jan. 16, 2026 sentenced former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison for obstruction and related offenses tied to his short‑lived December 2024 declaration of martial law.

“A South ‍Korean court has sentenced former President Yoon Suk-yeol to five years in prison on charges that included obstructing attempts by ​authorities to arrest him following his failed bid to impose martial law in December 2024”

AAP News

The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of resisting detention and bypassing legally required cabinet procedures.

AAP News

The lead judge said a grave punishment was needed because Yoon showed no remorse and offered what the judge called hard-to-comprehend excuses.

The sentence is the first of multiple criminal trials connected to the episode, and Yoon can appeal the ruling.

Court findings described concrete acts that judges said amounted to abuse of power, including directing the presidential security service to block investigators from executing an arrest warrant, fabricating or falsifying official documents related to the decree, and failing to convene the full cabinet meeting legally required before imposing martial law.

Judges also cited actions taken to resist arrest, including barricading himself and ordering deletion of phone data, and said state security personnel had been effectively 'privatised' to protect the president.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Prosecutors in separate proceedings are pursuing still-more serious insurrection charges tied to the same episode.

The sentence follows Yoon's impeachment, removal from office and a period of national turmoil.

“Yoon was impeached in 2024 for his martial law attempt South Korea's impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol will be jailed for five years overabuse of power, obstructing justice and falsifying documentsin relation to his failed martial law bid in 2024”

BBC

Reports across outlets note he evaded arrest for weeks, barricading himself with loyal security staff before being detained, and supporters protested outside the courtroom after the verdict.

Prosecutors have separately pursued a more serious insurrection or rebellion case over the same December decree that could carry life imprisonment or — as several outlets report prosecutors sought — even the death penalty in theory, though some outlets note executions have been unofficially suspended in South Korea since 1997.

Coverage of Yoon's case varies in tone and factual details.

Some outlets report Yoon was convicted for fabricating official documents, while at least one outlet reports an acquittal on the forging charge.

CBC

Other outlets emphasize political theatre such as barricading and protests, or stress legal technicalities like appeals and multiple pending trials.

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