Yoon Suk-yeol already faces ongoing trial on insurrection charges over his brief imposition of martial law.
South Korean prosecutors have indicted former President Yoon Suk-yeol for abuse of authority without arrest, the country’s news agency Yonhap said, as political uncertainty ahead of a snap June 3 presidential election continues in the country.
This latest indictment on Thursday adds further legal jeopardy for Yoon who is already facing an ongoing trial on insurrection charges, brought against him over his brief imposition of martial law last December.
Armed soldiers were deployed to parliament under the decree, but the order lasted only about six hours as it was swiftly voted down by opposition MPs, who scaled fences to enter the building. Parliamentarians later impeached Yoon over the martial law declaration.
Yoon, 64, was stripped of all power and privileges in April by the Constitutional Court, which upheld the impeachment motion. He was soon forced to move out of the presidential residence.
Prosecutors first indicted him in January – when he was still president – as “the ringleader of an insurrection”, a charge not covered by presidential immunity.
“We have since proceeded with the [insurrection] trial while conducting supplementary investigations into the abuse of power allegation, leading to this additional indictment,” prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday.
The new charge also comes a day after investigators raided Yoon’s private residence in Seoul as part of a probe into bribery allegations involving his wife Kim Keon-hee and a shaman accused of receiving lavish gifts on behalf of the former first lady.
If convicted of the insurrection charge, Yoon could be sentenced to life in prison or death – although South Korea has had an unofficial moratorium on executions since 1997.
Yoon was the second South Korean president to be removed from office, and the third to be impeached by parliament.
Election frontrunner
With Yoon out of office, South Korea is set to hold a snap election on June 3.
South Korea’s Supreme Court overturned on Thursday an earlier ruling that Lee Jae-myung, the frontrunner in the presidential race, was not guilty of violating the election law, throwing into doubt his eligibility to run for the presidency.
Lee said after the ruling that the decision to overturn his not guilty verdict in the criminal case was “completely different” from what he had expected. Lee added he would do whatever the people wanted, not what his political rivals said.
Lee was named the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate on Sunday after winning the primary, and has been leading opinion polls for weeks suggesting a double-digit gap over contestants from Yoon’s conservative People Power Party.
In the meantime, acting leader Han Duck-soo resigned ahead of an expected run for president in the snap election. Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok is expected to stand as acting president as required by law.