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Han Duck-soo, the previous prime minister of South Korea, arrives on the Seoul Central District Court docket within the metropolis’s Seocho District for the Jan. 21, 2026, verdict listening to in his trial of partaking in important actions in service of an rebellion for his position within the declaration of martial legislation by former President Yoon Suk-yeol. (Choi Hyeon-su/Hankyoreh)
A Korean court docket has sentenced former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to 23 years in jail for enjoying a necessary position within the 2024 rebellion.
This was the primary judicial ruling acknowledging that former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s declaration of martial legislation on Dec. 3, 2024, represented an rebellion beneath Korea’s felony code. After the decision, Han was instantly taken into custody.
Choose Lee Jin-gwan of the Seoul Central District Court docket returned his verdict on Wednesday for Han, who had been indicted for partaking in important actions in an rebellion and getting ready false public paperwork. The court docket convicted Han on nearly all of the fees he confronted.
Han was placed on trial on Aug. 29, 2025, for advising Yoon to carry a Cupboard assembly to provide his unlawful declaration of martial legislation a patina of procedural legitimacy, which prosecutors argued constituted aiding and abetting the ringleader of an rebellion and interesting in important actions in an rebellion.
Han was additionally charged with conspiring with Yoon and the president’s private secretary to first signal, after which destroy, an ex-post-facto martial legislation proclamation with the objective of concealing the illegality of the martial legislation declaration. He additionally confronted a cost of perjury for stating, “I actually don’t bear in mind when or how I obtained [the martial law declaration from Yoon],” throughout Yoon’s impeachment trial.
Cho Eun-seok, the particular counsel main the probe into Yoon’s rebellion, had requested a sentence of 15 years for Han throughout the remaining arguments in his trial on Nov. 26, 2025.
“The actions of former President Yoon on Dec. 3, 2024 — specifically, declaring martial legislation, issuing an unlawful and unconstitutional edict based mostly on that declaration, and mobilizing public officers from the police and navy in an try to go looking the Nationwide Meeting and the Nationwide Election Fee and arrest the members thereof — are in keeping with rebellion beneath the Prison Act,” the court docket stated in Han’s sentencing on Wednesday.
“This amounted to an rebellion from the highest, or what is named a self-coup, by Yoon and his followers,” the court docket added.
By Park Ji-young, employees reporter; Jung Hwan-bong, employees reporter; Lee Na-young, employees reporter
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
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