SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean investigators recommended Thursday that impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol be charged with insurrection and abuse of power, as they handed over the results of their probe into his ill-fated declaration of martial law to prosecutors.
The official charges against Yoon were “leading an insurrection and abuse of power,” the Corruption Investigation Office said after a 51-day probe into his 3 December attempt to suspend civilian rule.
The CIO said it “decided to request the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office file charges against the sitting President, Yoon Suk Yeol, in connection with allegations including leading insurrection.”
Yoon had “conspired with the former Minister of National Defense and military commanders on December 3, 2024,” it said.
The leader, currently suspended from duties, “declared martial law with the intent to exclude state authority or disrupt the constitutional order, thereby inciting riots.”
Under the South Korean legal system, the case file of the suspect — identified as “Yoon Suk Yeol: president” — will now be handed to prosecutors, who have 11 days to decide whether to charge him, which would lead to a criminal trial.
The prosecutors’ office has “complied with the CIO’s request for a case transfer,” the investigators said.
Yoon was arrested in a dawn raid last week on insurrection charges, becoming the first sitting South Korean head of state to be detained in a criminal probe.
South Korea was plunged into political chaos by Yoon’s botched martial law declaration, which lasted just six hours before lawmakers voted it down. They later impeached him, stripping him of his duties.