\n<\/p>\n
SEOUL, South Korea — <\/span>An independent counsel on Tuesday demanded a death sentence for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law<\/a> in December 2024.<\/p>\n Removed from office last April, Yoon faces eight trials over various criminal charges related to his martial law debacle and other scandals related to his time in office. Charges that he directed a rebellion are the most significant ones.<\/p>\n Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk\u2019s team requested the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Yoon to death, according to the court. <\/p>\n The Seoul court is expected to deliver a verdict on Yoon in February. Experts say the court likely will sentence him to life in prison. South Korea hasn’t executed anyone since 1997.<\/p>\n Yoon was scheduled to make remarks at Tuesday’s hearing. He has maintained that his decree was a desperate yet peaceful attempt to raise public awareness about what he considered the danger of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, which used its legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. He called the opposition-controlled parliament \u201ca den of criminals\u201d and \u201canti-state forces.\u201d<\/p>\n Yoon\u2019s decree, the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea, brought armed troops into Seoul streets to encircle the assembly and enter election offices. That evoked traumatic memories of dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed rulers used martial law and other emergency decrees to station soldiers and armored vehicles in public places to suppress pro-democracy protests.<\/p>\n On the night of Yoon’s martial law declaration, thousands of people rushed to the National Assembly to object to the decree and demand his resignation in dramatic scenes. Enough lawmakers, including even those in Yoon\u2019s ruling party, managed to enter an assembly hall to vote down the decree.<\/p>\n Observers described Yoon\u2019s action as political suicide. Parliament impeached him and sent the case to the Constitutional Court, which ruled to dismiss him as president.<\/p>\n It was a spectacular downfall for Yoon, a former star prosecutor who won South Korea\u2019s presidency in 2022, a year after entering politics.<\/p>\n Lee Jae Myung, a former Democratic Party leader who led Yoon’s impeachment bid, became president by winning a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to delve into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.<\/p>\n There had been speculation that Yoon resorted to martial law to protect his wife, Kim Keon Hee, from potential corruption investigations. But in wrapping up a six-month investigation last month, independent counsel Cho\u2019s team concluded that Yoon plotted for over a year<\/a> to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and monopolize power.<\/p>\n Yoon\u2019s decree and ensuing power vacuum plunged South Korea into political turmoil, halted the country\u2019s high-level diplomacy and rattled its financial markets.<\/p>\n Yoon\u2019s earlier vows to fight attempts to impeach and arrest him deepened the country\u2019s political divide. In January last year, he became the country\u2019s first sitting president to be detained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n