South Korean prosecutors accuse the president dismissed by declaration of martial law

Seoul, South Korea – South Korean prosecutors accused President Yoon Suk Yeol of Rebellion on Sunday in relation to their brief imposition of the martial law, a criminal office that could lead to the death penalty or life imprisonment if it is declared guilty.

This is the last blow to Yoon, who was accused and arrested for his martial law decree of December 3 that plunged the country into a political agitation, shook his financial markets and damaged his international image. Apart from the criminal judicial procedures, the Constitutional Court is now deliberating whether to formally dismiss Yoon as president or restore him.

Yoon has become the first president of South Korea accused while in office. It will remain imprisoned and will be escorted from a detention center to a Seoul court for trial hearings, which is expected to last for about six months.

The prosecutors said in a statement that they accused Yoon of having directed a rebellion when the martial law imposed. The investigating authorities have previously alleged that the imposition of the martial law by Yoon was equivalent to a rebellion, because he organized disturbances with the purpose of undermining the Constitution.

Yoon’s defense team lashed out at the accusation, describing it as “the worst decision” of the prosecutors who, they say, are trying to win the favor of the political forces that want Yoon’s departure.

“Today’s accusation against the president will be as a shame in the history of South Korean prosecutors who cannot erase,” Yoon’s defense team said in a statement. “We emphasize once again that the declaration of martial law by a president can never be a rebellion.”

Yoon has presidential immunity against most criminal processes, but privilege does not extend to accusations of rebellion or betrayal. By law in South Korea, the leader of a rebellion can face life imprisonment or capital punishment.

Yoon, a conservative, has flatly denied having acted bad senior officials. During his announcement of the martial law, Yoon called the Assembly “a den of criminals” and promised to eliminate the “shameless followers of North Korea and the antistatal forces.”

After declaring the martial law on December 3, Yoon sent troops and police officers to the Assembly, but enough legislators managed to enter a chamber of the Assembly to reject Yoon’s decree unanimously, which forced its cabinet to lift it .

The imposition of the martial law, the first of this type in South Korea in more than four decades, lasted only six hours. However, he evoked painful memories of the dictatorial government in South Korea from 1960 to the 1980s, when the rulers backed by the military used martial laws and emergency decrees to repress their opponents.

The Constitution of South Korea gives the President the power to declare martial law to maintain order in times of war and other comparable emergency states, but many experts say that the country was not under such conditions when Yoon declared the martial law .

Yoon insists that he had no intention of interrupting the work of the Assembly, including vote in the plenary on his decree, and that the deployment of troops and police forces aimed to maintain order. But the commanders of the military units sent to the Assembly have said at the hearings of the Assembly or the investigators that Yoon ordered them to remove legislators to prevent them from revoking their decree.

Yoon research has intensified the already serious internal division of the country, and rival protesters regularly organize demonstrations in the center of Seoul.

After a local court approved on January 19 a formal arrest warrant to extend Yoon’s arrest, dozens of their supporters broke into the court building, destroying windows, doors and other properties. They also attacked police officers with bricks, steel tubes and other objects. The violence left 17 police injured. Police said he arrested 46 protesters.

Previously, Yoon resisted the efforts of the investigating authorities to question or stop it. He was then arrested on January 15 in a huge police operation in his presidential complex.

Yoon’s investigation was in charge of the Corruption Research Office for high -ranking officials, but Yoon has refused to attend the interrogation sessions of that office since he was arrested, saying that he has no legal authority to investigate accusations of rebellion. The corruption investigation office has said that Yoon’s accusation of rebellion can investigate because it is related to its supposed abuse of power and other accusations.

The corruption investigation office delivered Yoon’s case to the Seoul Prosecutor’s Office and asked him to accuse him of rebellion, abuse of power and obstruction of the National Assembly. The prosecutors said they accused Yoon only of rebellion, considering that Yoon had presidential immunity against other positions.

The Minister of Defense and Yoon Police Chief, as well as several other military commanders, have already been arrested for rebellion, abuse of power and other charges related to the martial law decree.

If the Constitutional Court decides to expel Yoon from their position, national elections must be held to choose their successor within two months. Recent public surveys show that the candidates of the ruling party and the opposition compete side by side in a possible presidential career.