Death Penalty on the Table: Yoon Suk Yeol Insurrection Trial 2026 Final Hearing

A former South Korean leader faces the ultimate penalty in the same court where history once judged his predecessors. The final hearing for former President Yoon Suk Yeol, indicted for leading an insurrection through the Dec. 3, 2024 martial law declaration, is set for 9:20 a.m. Friday at the Seoul Central District Court.

Yoon Suk Yeol Insurrection Trial 2026: The Closing Arguments

Special counsel Cho Eun-suk is expected to request one of three mandatory punishments for a ringleader of an insurrection: the death penalty, life imprisonment, or life imprisonment without forced labor. Legal experts suggest that given the severity of subverting the Constitution, a maximum sentence recommendation is highly likely.

The session will also wrap up trials for key accomplices, including former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former National Police Agency chief Cho Ji-ho. They're accused of mobilizing troops and police to seal off the National Assembly, preventing lawmakers from voting down the decree—a move that pushed South Korea’s democracy to the brink.

Echoes of the 1996 'Trial of the Century'

The trial's setting is steeped in symbolism. It's the same courtroom where former military strongmen Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were tried in 1996 for their roles in the 1979 coup. While Chun received a death sentence recommendation back then, South Korea hasn't carried out an execution since December 1997, leading Amnesty International to label the country an 'abolitionist in practice.'