South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, permanently removed from power, four months after declaring martial law
Yoon Suk Yeol. Credit Line: Yonhap / AP / Profimedia
The Constitutional Court of South Korea confirmed on Friday unanimously the dismissal of the suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol, permanently removing it from power because he decreed the martial law in December, triggering a political crisis, reports AFP, quoted by Agerpres.
The court estimated that Yoon's actions “violated the fundamental principles of the rule of law and democratic governance,” the decision read in 23 minutes by President Moon Hyung-Bae shows.
Yoon “did not be satisfied to decree the martial law, but committed documents that violated the Constitution and the law, especially by mobilizing military and police forces to prevent the National Assembly from exercising their authority,” he continued.
“Finally, the unconstitutional and illegal actions of the defendant betray the confidence of the people and constitute a serious violation of the law that cannot be tolerated from the point of view of the protection of the Constitution,” the Court added.
“We pronounce the following decision, with the unanimous agreement of all judges: (we) we dismiss President Yoon Suk Yeol,” he said, confirming the dismissal adopted by the National Assembly on December 14th.
What follows
This decision means Yoon's immediate departure from power, which had so far been suspended, and will lead to anticipated presidential elections within 60 days. Yoon Suk Yeol had been arrested on January 15, being released on March 8th.
A possible candidate for the position of future president of the country is the opposition leader, Lee Jae-Myung, a former lawyer and parliamentary, who lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential elections.
Meanwhile, former President Yoon is also facing a criminal trial for “insurrection”, one of the few criminal charges for which a president does not benefit from immunity and is punished with life imprisonment or death.
The accusation act claimed that the imposition of the martial law by Yoon – a period in which he sent troops to Parliament, and the commanders confessed that they were ordered to “forcefully” the parliamentarians – was an illegal attempt to close the National Assembly and to arrest politicians and electoral authorities.
Yoon said that his decree was justified by the political blockage and threats from the “anti-state forces” sympathetic to North Korea, and that it was conceived as a temporary warning to the liberal opposition. He claimed that he always had the intention to respect the will of the parliamentarians, if they had voted for the annulment of the decree.
Finally, his decree took only six hours. Yoon annulled the decision after the parliamentarians entered the Parliament and voted unanimously for its blocking-triggering four months of political chaos, during which the Parliament also voted for the dismissal of the Prime Minister and the Interim President, notes CNN.
