South Korea court sentences ousted President Yoon to 7 years in prison

South Korea’s appeals court raised ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol’s prison term to 7 years, a stark verdict for a former president whose brief martial law bid in December 2024 jolted the country’s democracy, rattled markets and helped reshape the political order.

The Seoul High Court said Yoon abused presidential power by mobilizing the Presidential Security Service to block investigators from arresting him, fabricating a martial law proclamation after the fact to hide procedural flaws, and bypassing the Cabinet process that martial law required. The court said all nine absent Cabinet members were victims of that abuse of power. It also upheld findings that Yoon ordered the deletion of secure-phone call logs tied to military commanders involved in the plot.

The ruling was the first decision by a special court division created to handle insurrection-related cases, and it was broadcast live. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison term. Yoon’s lawyers said they would appeal to the Supreme Court, calling the verdict “very disappointing.”

The appeals court went further than the first trial in January 2026, which had partially cleared Yoon on some Cabinet-meeting-related charges. Judges said martial law had to be discussed at a formal Cabinet meeting, and they reversed part of that earlier acquittal. The court also stressed that Yoon, as sitting president at the time, carried a heavy constitutional duty to protect the public but instead “betrayed that duty” and deepened social unrest.

Yoon declared martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, then lifted it early on Dec. 4 after the National Assembly moved to reject military rule. He was suspended on Dec. 14, 2024, impeached by lawmakers and formally removed by the Constitutional Court of Korea on April 4, 2025. The crisis lasted only hours, but it paralyzed politics and high-level diplomacy and shook financial markets across Seoul.

The fallout did not end with Yoon’s removal. Liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung won the snap presidential election in June 2025, and Yoon has been jailed since July 2025. This sentence is separate from his rebellion and insurrection case, in which he already received a life sentence, and it is one of eight trials he faces since leaving office. For South Korea, the appeal ruling is less an ending than another test of whether constitutional accountability can hold, even as the country remains divided over a president who turned the machinery of state against the legal limits on his own power.