South Korea’s impeached and arrested President Yoon Suk Yeol was formally indicted on Sunday on charges of leading an uprising over his brief imposition of martial law last month.
Mr Yoon’s indictment means his trial will begin soon. It was an indictment of a former defense minister, as well as several military generals and police chiefs, who all face criminal charges of helping Mr Yoon commit the same crime.
He is the first president in South Korea’s history to face criminal charges while still in office.
His downfall began when he unexpectedly declared martial law on December 3, accusing the opposition-controlled National Assembly of “paralyzing” his government. The General Assembly voted against the measure, forcing him to rescind the order about six hours later. But it has triggered South Korea’s worst political crisis in decades.
As people called for Mr Yoon’s strike, the General Assembly impeached him on December 14, suspending him from office. The country’s Constitutional Court is considering whether parliamentary impeachment is legal and whether he should be formally removed from office. Separately, criminal investigators detained Mr. Yoon on January 15 on uprising charges.
Mr. Yoon vowed from his prison cell to restart office.
According to public opinion polls, a majority of South Koreans approved of his impeachment and believed he was guilty of insurrection. But Mr Yuen’s die-hard supporters have called his impeachment a “fraud”. Some of them rebelled at the courthouse after one of their judges granted a warrant for his arrest on January 19.
Prosecutors said Mr Yoon committed rebellion by “dragging out” MPs during the short-lived marriage law. They said Mr Yun sent troops to occupy parliament and detain political leaders.
The country watched live-streamed scenes of an operation by armed special forces attacking parliament as lawmakers gathered there to vote against martial law. But Mr Yuan rejected accusations of an uprising, saying he never intended to neutralize parliament or arrest political leaders. Troops were there “to maintain order,” he said.
Mr Yoon’s indictment, while not surprising, came much earlier than expected.
State prosecutors have been investigating the former defense minister and general. The uprising case against Mr Yin was brought by the country’s top official’s corruption investigation office, but by law only prosecutors can prosecute him.
Mr Yoon has refused to cooperate with the investigation; he and his lawyers insist that the four-year-old’s office has no authority to investigate him.
The Corruption Investigation Office handed its case to prosecutors on Thursday. The two men had earlier agreed that prosecutors must charge Mr Yoon by early February, and prosecutors planned to further investigate Mr Yoon’s actions.
But on Friday, a Seoul court judge ruled that Mr Yoon must be charged earlier because the Corruption Investigation Office was already investigating.
