South Korea’s parliament on Saturday voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration earlier this month, news agency AP reported.
The motion was passed in the National Assembly in a 204-85 vote.
Yoon’s presidential powers and duties will be suspended after the copies of a document on the impeachment are delivered to him and to the Constitutional Court, AP report stated.
What Will Happen Next?
The court now has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss Yoon as the president or restore his powers, according to AP. If he’s thrown out of office, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.
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Yoon, according to the news agency, was banned from leaving the country, as law enforcement authorities investigated whether he and others involved in the martial law declaration committed rebellion and abuse of power, among other crimes.
If convicted, the leader could face death penalty or life imprisonment.
Yoon earlier exercised the presidential privilege of immunity from criminal prosecution, however, that does not extend to allegations of rebellion or treason. Subsequently, Yoon could be investigated, detained, arrested or indicted over his martial law decree, as per the report.
Yoon’s defense minister, police chief and the head of Seoul’s metropolitan police agency have already been arrested over their roles in the case. Other senior military and government officials continue to face investigations, AP stated.
What Happened After Yoon Declared Martial Law?
After declaring the law, Yoon sent his troops and police personnel to the parliament to try to impede its vote on the decree before withdrawing them as the parliament rejected it, AP reported.
Opposition parties had then accused Yoon of rebellion, while stating that by law, a president in South Korea is allowed to declare martial law only during wartime or similar emergencies and has no rights to suspend parliament’s operations even under it.
The impeachment motion alleged that Yoon “committed rebellion that hurts peace on the Republic of Korea by staging a series of riots.” It stated, as AP quoted, Yoon’s mobilization of military and police forces threatened the National Assembly and the public and that his martial law decree was aimed at disturbing the Constitution.
