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In a dramatic turn of events, a South Korean appeals court has handed down a seven-year prison sentence to ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol. This decision, announced on Wednesday, comes as a result of Yoon’s resistance to arrest and his decision to sidestep a legitimate Cabinet meeting before hastily imposing martial law in December 2024.
This recent conviction for obstruction of justice and additional charges compounds Yoon’s legal woes, adding to the life sentence he is already serving for rebellion. His actions marked a bewildering authoritarian push that plunged South Korea into its gravest democratic crisis in decades.
Presiding over the case, Judge Yoon Sung-sik of the Seoul High Court detailed how the former conservative leader bypassed a legally required full Cabinet meeting before declaring martial law. He further accused Yoon of falsifying documents to cover up this breach and utilizing security forces as if they were his “private army” to thwart arrest efforts following his impeachment. Throughout the proceedings, Yoon remained silent as the court delivered its verdict.
Outside the courthouse, supporters of the former president rallied, holding up his portrait in a show of solidarity. The scene was captured by Ahn Young-joon of the Associated Press on April 29, 2026.
Yoo Jeong-hwa, a member of Yoon’s legal team, expressed deep disappointment with the verdict, revealing their intention to challenge the decision at the Supreme Court. Yoon, meanwhile, continues to contest his life sentence in a separate appeal.
A lower court in January sentenced Yoon to five years in prison but partially cleared him of abuse-of-power charges tied to the Cabinet meeting ahead of the martial law declaration, finding he was not responsible for the failure to attend of two members who were invited.
The Seoul High Court reversed that acquittal, finding him guilty on all counts and ruling that he violated the rights of those two as well as seven other Cabinet members who weren’t notified by convening only a select few to simulate a formal meeting.
South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Feb. 11, 2025. (Lee Jin-man/AP)
Though brief, Yoon’s Dec. 3, 2024, martial law decree threw the country into a severe political crisis, paralyzing politics and high-level diplomacy and rattling financial markets. The turmoil eased only after his liberal rival, Lee Jae Myung, won an early presidential election in June.
Yoon was suspended from office on Dec. 14, 2024, after being impeached by the liberal-led legislature and was formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025.
Following his suspension from office, he refused to comply with a Seoul court’s warrant to detain him for questioning, setting up a standoff in which dozens of investigators arrived at the presidential residence in early January 2025 but were blocked by presidential security forces and vehicle barricades. He was detained later that month, released by another court in March, and was then re-arrested in July.
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stage a rally outside the Seoul High Court in Seoul, South Korea, on April 29, 2026. (Ahn Young-joon/AP)
He remained in custody after that as a series of criminal trials, which are continuing, began.
Wednesday’s ruling came a day after the same court increased to four years the sentence of Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, for charges including accepting luxury gifts from the Unification Church, which sought political favors from Yoon’s government, and involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme.
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stage a rally outside the Seoul High Court in Seoul on April 29, 2026. (Ahn Young-joon/AP)
Prosecutors in a separate trial last week also requested a 30-year prison term for Yoon over allegations that he deliberately tried to escalate tensions with North Korea in 2024 by ordering drone flights over Pyongyang as he sought to create justifiable conditions for martial law at home.