May 2, 2025
SEOUL – The prosecution investigating former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Dec. 3, 2024 declaration of martial law on Thursday indicted Yoon for abuse of power.
Yoon will face a criminal court trial for his alleged obstruction of the exercise of rights through the abuse of power, constituting a violation of Article 123 of the Criminal Act, when he declared martial law nearly five months ago, according to the prosecution’s special investigation team led by Park Se-hyun, chief prosecutor at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office.
The prosecution’s Special Investigation Headquarters on Jan. 26 had earlier indicted Yoon, who was then still the sitting president, on a charge of leading an insurrection, beginning the proceedings in his criminal trial on Feb. 20 while he was under detention. Yoon was released in a separate court decision March 8. Prosecutors asked the criminal court to merge the two criminal cases against Yoon.
The prosecutors have been moving ahead with legal procedures for Yoon’s criminal trial, while conducting supplementary investigations into the charge of abuse of power, which has now led to the additional indictment against Yoon.
Yoon was permanently removed from the presidency by the Constitutional Court in a unanimous 8-0 decision on April 4.
Meanwhile, Yoon — whose criminal trial on charges of orchestrating an insurrection opened on Feb. 20 — denied all allegations in two formal hearings held in April, claiming his martial law declaration was a “message to the public” and did not constitute an act of insurrection.