Death Penalty News

Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life imprisonment Thursday after being found guilty of leading an insurrection during his declaration of martial law in December 2024. The ruling, delivered by Seoul Central District Court Judge Jee Kui-youn, was lighter than the death penalty prosecutors sought at the trial's final hearing in January. The ruling was aired live on South Korea's major broadcasters. Jee said in the verdict that Yoon led an insurrection and committed acts to subvert the country's constitutional order.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); 15 January 2026: Nineteen days into the anti-government nationwide protests in Iran, IHRNGO continues to receive reports of the extent of the bloody crackdown on protests through individuals who have recently left Iran, phone calls and communications through satellite internet devices. These accounts indicate the wide scale of repression and the systematic killing of protesters across Iran. IHRNGO has obtained new evidence of state forces using heavy weaponry including DShK and other mounted machine guns, in attacks on protesters and carried out mass killings between 8 and 11 January.

South Korea's beleaguered ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol has been found guilty of abuse of power, falsifying documents and obstructing justice when he tried and failed to impose martial law in the country in 2024. He has also been sentenced to five years in jail. Yoon is facing three other trials for charges ranging from insurrection to violating campaign law. The verdict comes more than a year after his short-lived decree threw South Korea into political turmoil, leaving it deeply divided.

SEOUL, South Korea — Special prosecutors on Tuesday asked a court to sentence former President Yoon Suk Yeol to death, labeling his short-lived 2024 martial law declaration an "act of insurrection" that brought the nation to the brink of constitutional collapse. The demand was made during closing arguments at the Seoul Central District Court, marking a dramatic climax to a trial that has gripped the country for months. Yoon, who was removed from office following the events of Dec. 3, 2024, faces charges of leading an insurrection and abuse of power.

The country’s Constitutional Court ruled on Sept. 20 in favor of maintaining the death penalty, in line with the position expressed by an overwhelming majority of the population. Yet, capital punishment remains controversial for a country that sees itself as East Asia's model democracy. TAIPEI — Wang Xin-Fu has spent the past 34 years in prison, where he awaits his execution. When he was arrested, in 1990, some Taiwanese territories were still under martial law — back when Chiang Kai-Shek was in power under the Kuomintang single-party rule.

All defendants were denied legal representation in military tribunals or sentenced in absentia. Myanmar’s junta has condemned more than 100 people to death in the Yangon region alone since it seized power a year ago. None of the people sentenced were given the right to defend themselves. Of the 101 people documented by RFA’s Myanmar Service, 50 were convicted in secretive military tribunals where they were denied access to legal representation, while the rest were sentenced in absentia. Those convicted hailed mostly from the Yangon townships of North Okkalapa, South Dagon, North Dagon, Hlaingtharyar, Dagon Port and Shwepyithar, where martial law has been in place amid resistance to military rule. Two of the more well-known prisoners facing the death penalty are Phyo Zeyar Thaw, a lawmaker with the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) party, and activist Ko Jimmy, a leader of the 88 Generation Student group. Both were sentenced for violating the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law, acco...

Suspects tried in 6 townships under martial law don’t have access to legal counsel. More than 90 people have been sentenced to death by military courts in Myanmar’s Yangon region since the country’s army overthrew civilian rule in a Feb. 1 coup, according to reports in Myanmar’s junta-controlled media. Five youths were sentenced on Dec. 16 in Yangon’s South Dagon township for allegedly shooting and killing a local administrator, and another two — identified as Hein Htet Aung and Aukkar Thein —were sentenced in North Dagon township on Dec. 3. Six others, including Htet Paing Soe, also called Pho Htet, from South Dagon Myothit, and 15 others from Dagon Seikkan township, including Khin Wint Kyaw Maung and Zin Min Kyaw, were also handed death sentences, bringing the total to 28 between November and mid-December. The number of people on death row in the six Yangon townships under martial law has now risen to 92, of whom 42 were sentenced in absentia, according to official figures. Speaking ...

The Myanmar junta’s military tribunals have sentenced 65 people to death following unjust trials since the military coup on February 1, 2021, Human Rights Watch said today. State media and local groups have reported that 26 of those sentenced are currently detained, while 39 were convicted in absentia. Military tribunals handed down the death sentences in areas of Yangon where the junta declared martial law in March. In imposing martial law, the junta transferred all executive and judicial power to the head of the relevant regional military command and instituted the death penalty as a possible sentence for 23 crimes. “The Myanmar junta has added to its mass shootings of protesters on the streets by having military tribunals hand down several dozen death sentences after egregiously unfair trials,” said Shayna Bauchner, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Apparently aimed to chill the anti-coup protest movement, these death sentences should serve as a stark warning to foreign govern...

In the latest aggression by Myanmar's military authorities, 64 people including minors have been sentenced to death. The opposition National Unity government said on Sunday that those convicted had no attorney during the trials held in military courts. The majority were known to have been arrested in townships in Yangon where martial law was declared following the army's coup. Although capital punishment is in Myanmar's constitution, the country has not executed anyone since 1998. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 800 people have been killed so far as the result of the brutal crackdown by security forces. Source: arirang.co.kr , Staff, June 28, 2021 🚩 | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com . Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this...

Myanmar's state-run television reported Tuesday night that 7 people had been sentenced to death by court-martial for their roles in the killing of a woman who purportedly cooperated with the military. The military has intensified its crackdown on protesters and others opposed to its rule following a February coup.  Nineteen people were sentenced to death by court-martial last week for the killing of an associate of an army officer in the largest city Yangon. The 7 either committed or aided in the killing of the woman on March 15 in an area of Yangon where martial law has been declared, according to the report. She had purportedly leaked information about protesters and others. 19 others were sentenced to 3 to 7 years in prison for their roles in the case. The sentences were dated Monday. In areas where martial law has been declared, serious crimes are tried by court-martial, with the maximum penalty being death. No appeals are permitted. Security forces had killed 714 people in Mya...

Defendants accused of killing one, injuring another tried under martial law BANGKOK -- A military tribunal in Myanmar has sentenced 19 people to death for killing a member of the military and wounding another, state television reported Friday night, in what is believed to be the junta's first use of the death penalty since declaring martial law last month. The defendants are accused of attacking the two personnel and others with knives and clubs in Yangon's North Okkalapa township during the Armed Forces Day holiday on March 27.  They reportedly took a motorcycle and a gun from the assailed personnel. The sentence was handed down Thursday, according to state media.  Of the 19 people tried, 17 remain at large and are on a wanted list. In areas of Yangon that are under martial law, including North Okkalapa, serious crimes are brought before military tribunals.  Appealing to a higher court is not an option, but the commander-in-chief -- Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing -- can com...

Yangon — Myanmar’s military governing body, the State Administrative Council (SAC), has threatened anti-regime protesters with the death penalty in townships under martial law. The SAC initially declared martial law in Hlaing Tharyar and Shwepyithar townships in Yangon on Sunday following its violent crackdown, the deadliest day since the Feb. 1 coup.  Martial law was imposed on South Dagon, North Dagon, Dagon Seikkan and North Okkalapa townships in Yangon and parts of Mandalay on Monday. The announcement on state broadcaster MRTV late on Sunday said Yangon’s regional commander has been entrusted with administrative, judicial and military powers in the city. Those who commit one of 23 “offenses” in those townships will be tried in military courts and face penalties ranging from death, indefinite jail terms with labor and the maximum possible punishments under existing legislation, according to the orders signed by the SAC secretary, Lieutenant-General Aung Lin Dwe. The offenses inc...

But PM says legislation ‘not promising’ and ‘we don’t determine the punishment’; relatives of Achiad Ettinger accuse IDF soldiers of failing to open fire at terrorist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday paid a condolence call to the family of Rabbi Achiad Ettinger, who was killed in a combined shooting and stabbing terror attack in the northern West Bank on Sunday. During the visit in the central West Bank settlement of Eli, Netanyahu told the bereaved family he would attempt to legislate the death penalty for terrorists in Israel. “It’s not promising, it’s not promising,” he added, according to footage from the visit. Ettinger, a 47-year-old father of 12, succumbed to his injuries on Monday, a day after the attack that began at Ariel Junction, in which IDF soldier Gal Keidan, 19, was also killed. According to Israeli authorities, after fatally stabbing Keidan, the suspect, who has been named as Omar Abu Laila, 18, grabbed his gun and opened fire at passing ...

Latvia abolishes the death penalty in martial law as well. Latvia abolished the death penalty in civil law in 1999 but up to now it was still possible to sentence someone to death under certain circumstances in martial law. On Oct. 13th the Latvian parliament voted 77:4 to join the Protocol No. 13 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances. Source: Baltische-Rundschau, October 18, 2011