By Joyce Lee
SEOUL, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A South Korean court trying former President Yoon Suk Yeol on insurrection charges put off a sentencing request till next week after a marathon session on Friday, in a case that could give him the death penalty over his failed martial law bid in 2024.
Yoon, who is accused of masterminding an insurrection, could face the death penalty or life in prison under South Korean law if found guilty. South Korea has not executed a death-row inmate since 1997, although it has not abolished the death penalty.
A special prosecutor had been expected to make their request for a sentence to the Seoul Central District Court for Yoon and seven other defendants on Friday but the court decided to resume proceedings on January 13 after more than 12 hours of arguments.
Prosecutors have alleged that Yoon and then-defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, began devising a scheme as far back as October 2023 to suspend parliament and assume legislative powers.
Prosecutors accuse Yoon of seeking to brand his political opponents - including then-opposition leader Lee Jae Myung - as "anti-state forces" and to detain them.
They have said Yoon and Kim also tried to manufacture a pretext for martial law by escalating tensions with North Korea through a covert drone operation.
While the botched bid to impose martial law lasted only about six hours, it sent shockwaves through South Korea, which is Asia's fourth-largest economy, a key U.S. security ally and was long considered one of Asia's most resilient democracies.
Yoon, 65, has denied the charges. The conservative former career prosecutor has argued he had the powers as president to declare martial law and that his action was aimed at sounding the alarm over opposition parties' obstruction of government.
DEFENCE LAWYERS HAVE NOT FINISHED PRESENTING ARGUMENTS
Dressed in a dark suit and white shirt and appearing noticeably thinner than at the start of the trial in February, Yoon sat with the seven other defendants including Kim and legal counsel.
The session opened earlier than usual for the defence arguments, followed by the prosecutors' final arguments and sentencing requests relating to each of the defendants.
But by late Friday evening, defence lawyers were still hours away from finishing their arguments, prompting the court to set a new session for January 13. In South Korea, the court rules whether to convict a defendant and sets the sentence.
The court is expected to rule in February, capping more than a year of political upheaval following Yoon's martial law declaration on December 3, 2024, which was revoked within hours after lawmakers scaled fences to break through a security cordon around the National Assembly to vote.
Yoon was later impeached and removed from office by the Constitutional Court and a snap presidential election in June last year brought liberal-leaning Lee Jae Myung to power.
Yoon faces a string of other criminal charges, including obstructing the execution of an arrest warrant and abuse of power.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee, Kyu-seok Shim and Jack KimEditing by Ed Davies, Kate Mayberry and Gareth Jones)
