By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean prosecutors indicted on Monday 63 people for their role in storming a court building last month to protest the detention of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, with some facing charges carrying up to a seven-year jail term, an official said.
Hundreds of angry Yoon supporters stormed the Seoul Western District Court in the pre-dawn hours of January 19, destroying property and trespassing into judges’ chambers as some live-streamed the incident.
They broke through a police cordon at the court after a judge approved a warrant to extend the detention of Yoon for declaring a short-lived martial law on December 3. He became the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested and has been indicted for insurrection.
Of the 63 people indicted on charges that include aggravated obstruction of official duty, destruction of official property, attempted arson and assault, 62 remain in detention, the prosecution official said by telephone.
Eight others were still being investigated and there may be more people prosecuted, the official said.
The scenes of an angry mob overpowering police as they went on a rampage through the court building stunned the country and drew condemnation from government officials, who called it a grave challenge to the judiciary and the rule of law.
Conviction on a charge of aggravated obstruction of official duty carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years, according to court sentencing guidelines.
Yoon is also under a separate Constitutional Court trial reviewing parliament’s impeachment accusing him of violating his constitutional duty as president.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies)
