South Korea’s prosecutors have indicted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of leading an insurrection with his shortlived imposition of martial law on December 3, the Yonhap news agency reports.
In a statement, prosecutors said they had “indicted Yoon Suk Yeol with detention today on charges of being the ringleader of an insurrection”.
Sunday’s decision came after anti-corruption investigators last week recommended Yoon be formally charged.
Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. It is punishable by life imprisonment or death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades.
Yoon, who has been suspended from his duties since a December 14 impeachment vote by the National Assembly, was arrested at his residence in Seoul last week after refusing repeated summons to appear for questioning.
His arrest marked the first time in South Korean history that a sitting president was taken into custody.
The Constitutional Court is separately deliberating whether to formally dismiss Yoon as president or reinstate him.
More to come…
