South Korea: Amidst intense curiosity about the severity of the punishment that former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol would get, including the potential death sentence, the last hearing of his rebellion trial took place on Friday.

The trial will end after the hearing, which started at the Seoul Central District Court at 9:20 a.m. in February after Yoon was charged with inciting an uprising by declaring martial rule on December 3, 2024. This session will also be the last hearing in the insurrection trials of five people, including former National Police Agency head Cho Ji-ho and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who are accused of being instrumental in an uprising by participating in the short imposition of martial rule.

The former president, who was incarcerated, was among the eight defendants present.

The prosecution’s final conclusion and sentence recommendation, the defendant’s attorney’s closing arguments, and the defendant’s last statement usually comprise a final hearing.

The team led by special attorney Cho Eun-suk is expected to ask for one of the three legal punishments for the insurgent commander in Yoon’s case: the death sentence, life in prison, or life in prison without the need to do forced labor.

According to legal sources, the court’s sentence is expected to occur in early February, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Yoon is accused of planning a riot with the previous defense minister and others in order to violate the Constitution by unlawfully imposing martial rule in the absence of a war or other comparable national emergency.

He is specifically accused of ordering the speaker of the National Assembly and the then-leaders of the major opposition and governing parties to be arrested and detained, as well as of organizing military and police to blockade the National Assembly grounds and stop MPs from overriding his order.

In January of last year, Yoon was charged with physical detention, making him the first sitting president to do so.

After a court ruling invalidated his imprisonment, he was freed in March; nevertheless, he was arrested again in July on new accusations pertaining to his effort to impose martial rule.

The hearing on Friday took place in the same courtroom where other former leaders were tried for a variety of offenses. For example, in 1996, former Presidents Roh Tae-woo and Chun Doo-hwan were recommended to be sentenced to life in prison and the death penalty, respectively, for their roles in a 1979 coup that put Chun in power in 1980.

Since the death penalty has not been used since December 1997, Amnesty International has classified South Korea as an abolitionist in practice.