South Korea’s ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol sentenced to life in prison for insurrection

A South Korean court found former president Yoon Suk-yeol guilty of insurrection on February 19, 2026, and sentenced him to life in prison over his martial law decree that plunged the country into its most serious constitutional crisis in decades. The verdict, delivered by a three-judge panel of the Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Division 25, was the harshest and most consequential ruling yet stemming from Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law on December 3, 2024, and the events leading up to it.