Will Yoon Suk Yeol meet same bitter end as his predecessors?
With ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol's trial set to run until mid-December, he won't face a verdict until almost seven months after new president is elected on June 3.
The Criminal Act stipulates that those convicted of leading an insurrection face either death penalty or life imprisonment. Experts The Korea Herald spoke to said he was likely to be found guilty and face a prison sentence.
'Yoon's martial law declaration did not cause significant injuries or deaths like ex-President Chun Doo-hwan's Gwangju massacre in 1980. I expect the court to sentence him to life imprisonment rather than the death penalty,' a former research judge at the Constitutional Court Noh Hee-bum told The Korea Herald.
Lee Yun-ju, a law professor at Myongji University, expected a similar fate for Yoon.
'I think Yoon, who is a former prosecutor, knows that he cannot be acquitted in the criminal trial. He continues to politicize the trial, like how he expressed his support for conservative party's presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo. Yoon plans to wait for a potential special pardon provided by the conservative People Power Party after the conservative party (hypothetically) retains power in the June 3 election,' said Lee.
Though the ousted president's future remains uncertain until the Supreme Court of Korea to hand down its final verdict, Yoon is expected to become a part of the troubled history of South Korea's former presidents.
Here is a list of presidents who once stood at the pinnacle of power and saw their careers end in disgrace.
In 1995, former President Chun Doo-hwan and another former President Roh Tae-woo became the first two former presidents to be arrested.
Chun, who not only seized power through a 1979 coup, but also masterminded the massacre that quelled the Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980, were indicted on charges of insurrection, treason, bribery and corruption in 1996.
Roh, who became president by beating a divided field in the democratic election that followed Chun's ouster, was tried for his role in the 1979 military coup as well.
Though Seoul District Court sentenced Chun to death and handed down a prison term of 22 years and six months to Roh with its first trial verdict, the Supreme Court of Korea reduced Chun's punishment to life imprisonment and Roh's sentence by five years.
The two former presidents were pardoned by former President Kim Young-sam in 1997, after serving two years in prison.
Two other former presidents — Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak — have seen cases go all the way to a trial verdict.
Park, the first elected president to be removed from office by the Constitutional Court, was indicted on multiple charges, including bribery, abuse of power and coercion in 2017.
In its 2018 ruling, the court found Park guilty of 16 out of the 18 charges and sentenced her to 24 years in prison. Park spent four years and nine months behind bars, as she was pardoned by her successor, President Moon Jae-in.
Ex-President Lee was charged in April 2018 on 16 criminal counts including embezzlement and bribery.
A district court found him guilty of seven counts and sentenced him to 15 years in prison in its first trial verdict in October 2018. However, Lee only spent two years and six months in prison, as he was pardoned in 2022 by former President Yoon.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun died by suicide amid an investigation targeting him and his family over bribery charges in 2009.
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