A South Korean court has sentenced the country’s former president, Yoon Suk-yeol, to 30 years in prison. He was given the sentence on Friday over allegations that he was involved in sending military drones to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. South Korea’s news agency Yonhap reported the information.
According to the report, Yoon Suk-yeol tried and failed to impose martial law in the country in December 2024. He sent the drones to Pyongyang in order to create a pretext for declaring that martial law, the allegation said.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon Suk-yeol guilty of abuse of power and aiding the enemy. The court said Yoon had been involved in the conspiracy from the start of the drone incursions into North Korean airspace in October 2024.
Yoon, however, denied all the charges against him. His lawyers said he neither ordered the drone operation nor approved it afterwards. It was not related to the attempt to impose martial law, they said. Rather, it was a response to the provocation of the trash-filled balloons sent from North Korea month after month.
Earlier, in April, government prosecutors had sought a 30-year prison term for Yoon. The former conservative leader of South Korea was once the country’s top public prosecutor. His declaration of martial law plunged South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, into its worst political crisis in decades. Since being removed from power in the face of impeachment, one court verdict after another has come against Yoon. The latest verdict is a new addition to that list. In February, a South Korean court sentenced Yoon Suk-yeol to life imprisonment on charges of leading an insurrection through the attempt to impose martial law.
Last year, South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld the order to impeach Yoon, and he lost the presidency. As a result, a snap election was held in the country. It was won by the liberal incumbent president, Lee Jae-myung. Yoon Suk-yeol, currently in prison, can appeal this lower court verdict to a higher court.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report