Yoon Suk Yeol, the former president of South Korea, was found guilty of insurrection and sentenced to life in prison on Thursday. A court found him guilty of “abuse of authority and masterminding the insurrection” after declaring martial law in December 2024, Fox News noted. The ruling was lighter than the death penalty sought by prosecutors. JUST IN – South Korea's former President Yoon Suk Yeol found guilty of leading an insurrection and sentenced to life imprisonment for declaring martial law in 2024 — NYT pic.twitter.com/Wkrcfngfei — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) February 19, 2026 Fox News shared further: Yoon, 65, denied the charges and argued that he had presidential authority to declare martial law and that his action was aimed at sounding the alarm over opposition parties’ obstruction of government. Prosecutors said in January that Yoon’s “unconstitutional and illegal emergency martial law undermined the function of the National Assembly and the Election Commission… actually destroying the liberal democratic constitutional order.” Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law lasted roughly six hours, sparking mass street protests before parliament quickly voted it down. Under South Korean law, masterminding an insurrection carries a maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment. According to the Associated Press, the court also “convicted and sentenced five former military and police officials involved in enforcing Yoon’s martial law decree.” The court found Yoon abused his authority by ordering military officials to arrest several key politicians, including Lee Jae Myung, the liberal opposition leader at the time who is now the country’s president. He will likely appeal the verdict. South Korean court sentences ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison after finding him guilty of leading an insurrection with his martial law declaration. After Yoon declared martial law in December 2024, the hardline conservative was impeached, arrested and charged with a… pic.twitter.com/cbxzYyHGwA — AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 19, 2026 More from the Associated Press: As Yoon arrived in court, hundreds of police officers watched closely as Yoon supporters rallied outside a judicial complex, their cries rising as the prison bus transporting him drove past. Yoon’s critics gathered nearby, demanding the death penalty. There were no immediate reports of major clashes following the verdict. A special prosecutor had demanded the death penalty for Yoon Suk Yeol, saying his actions posed a threat to the country’s democracy and deserved the most serious punishment available, but most analysts had expected a life sentence since the poorly-planned power grab did not result in casualties. South Korea has not executed a death row inmate since 1997, in what is widely seen as a de facto moratorium on capital punishment amid calls for its abolition. Jung Chung-rae, leader of the liberal Democratic Party, which led the push to impeach and remove Yoon, expressed regret that the court stopped short of the death penalty, saying the ruling reflected a “lack of a sense of justice.” Song Eon-seok, floor leader of the conservative People Power Party, to which Yoon once belonged, issued a public apology, saying the party feels a “deep sense of responsibility” for the disruption to the nation.