{"id":40540,"date":"2026-01-21T12:37:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T06:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=40540"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:52:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:07:51","slug":"south-korean-ex-pm-han-gets-23-years-jail-for-martial-law-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/south-korean-ex-pm-han-gets-23-years-jail-for-martial-law-role\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korean ex-PM Han gets 23 years jail for martial law role"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

SEOUL, Jan 21 (AFP ): A South Korean court sentenced former prime minister Han Duck?soo to 23 years in prison on Wednesday for aiding and abetting a declaration of martial law that briefly suspended civilian rule.<\/p>\n

The defendant “disregarded his duty and responsibility as prime minister until the very end”, said Judge Lee Jin-gwan, of the Seoul Central District Court.<\/p>\n

“We sentence the defendant to 23 years in prison.”<\/p>\n

The sentence is eight years longer than prosecutors’ demand.<\/p>\n

The 76-year-old career technocrat was ordered to report to prison immediately after the ruling.<\/p>\n

Judge Lee said the martial law decree — declared by Han’s boss Yoon Suk Yeol in December 2024 — was intended with the “aim of subverting the constitutional order” and amounted to insurrection.<\/p>\n

Yoon’s stunning imposition of martial law saw armed troops deployed to the National Assembly and the National Election Commission before it was vetoed by the opposition?led parliament.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, Yoon was impeached and removed by the Constitutional Court in April, triggering a by?election two months later.<\/p>\n

Han is one of many former officials — including Yoon — who have stood trial over their roles in the martial law attempt.<\/p>\n

“The defendant is deemed to have played a significant role in the insurrectionary acts of Yoon and others by ensuring, at least formally, compliance with the procedural requirement,” Judge Lee said in a televised sentencing.<\/p>\n

Lee pointed out that while Han “voiced concerns to Yoon” over the move, he failed to “explicitly oppose it” or urge other cabinet members to dissuade Yoon from it.<\/p>\n

During the course of the trial, Han denied wrongdoing, insisting he had never supported or helped the martial law declaration.<\/p>\n

After Yoon was removed from office in April, Han assumed his post as acting president and was at one point seen as a strong conservative contender in the snap election.<\/p>\n

He resigned from the role in May to pursue a presidential bid, which soon collapsed when Yoon’s party refused to nominate him as its standard?bearer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, Jan 21 (AFP ): A South Korean court sentenced former prime minister Han Duck?soo to 23 years in prison on Wednesday for aiding and abetting a declaration of martial law that briefly suspended civilian rule. The defendant “disregarded his duty and responsibility as prime minister until the very end”, said Judge Lee Jin-gwan, of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40542,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40540\/revisions\/40542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}