section_path: Trial of Yoon Suk Yeol/Impeachment trial
section_name: Impeachment trial
paragraph_text: Impeachment trial
  
  On 14 January 2025, South Korea's constitutional court held the first hearing to determine if Yoon will be formally removed from office. The hearing was adjourned as it could not proceed without Yoon's presence.
  
  On the morning of 15 January, Yoon was arrested at his residence where he had been since the impeachment. Police used wire-cutters and ladders to enter Yoon's residence in order to bypass barricades and barbed wire fortifications. After his arrest Yoon was brought to the CIO, where he agreed to an interrogation. Yoon was the country's first sitting president to be arrested.
  
  On 18 January, supporters of Yoon clashed with police outside the Seoul Western District Court before storming the courthouse after his detention was extended.
  
  On 21 January, Yoon attended the impeachment trial for the first time, during which he denied ordering soldiers to interfere with the proceedings of the National Assembly against the martial law declaration.
  
  On 23 January, the CIO recommended that Yoon be charged with "leading an insurrection and abuse of power". On the same day, Yoon appeared at the impeachment trial again, with former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun present as a witness. Kim denied allegations that Yoon had ordered the military to storm the National Assembly to prevent lawmakers from convening and passing a resolution nullifying martial law. However, he admitted to recommending declaring martial law to Yoon and to writing a note to Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, instructing the establishment of an emergency legislative body during martial law. Alongside Yoon, Kim was also accused of ordering lawmakers to be dragged out of the parliament, to which Kim responded with; "The situation was very chaotic, I thought someone might get crushed to death. So I said to pull them out for now to reduce the risk of serious harm. That’s what I meant."
  
  Yoon was indicted on the insurrection charges on 26 January. His case was assigned by the Seoul Central District Court to its criminal collegiate division 25, which also handles martial law-related criminal charges against Kim Yong-hyun, Cho Ji-ho, and Kim Bong-sik.
  
  On 4 February, Yoon's defense team requested the court to cancel his arrest.
  
  Seoul Central District Court (ordinary criminal court) held its first preparatory hearing on Yoon's case on 20 February, which lasted only 13 minutes. There was heavy security around the court building, following the Seoul Western District Court riot.
  
  In the afternoon of the same day, during the Constitutional Court's hearing Yoon's lawyer, Kim Hong-il, condemned the arrest against Yoon, stating the declaration of martial law was "not intended to paralyse the state" and it had meant to "alert the public to the national crisis caused by the legislative dictatorship of the dominant opposition party." The court's acting chief justice, Moon Hyung-bae, said the next court hearing would be held on 25 February, and another would be held on 24 March.
  
  Han Duck-soo also had a court hearing the same day. "I am deeply burdened by the despair that each and every one of our people felt due to such extreme politics that took place before, during and after emergency martial law," Han would state in court. "All procedures dealing with the emergency martial law must be carried out fairly and reasonably so that there is no further spark of the national division."
  
  On 20 February, Yoon's criminal trial began, making him the first incumbent president of South Korea to stand trial in a criminal case.
  
  On 25 February, Yoon issued an apology on the last day of the impeachment trial, but continued to defend his actions. The trial concluded with a total of 11 hearings held over 73 days and 16 people testifying as witnesses.
  
  Also in same day, Lee Kwang-beom, one of the lawyers for parliament, compared Yoon to previous South Korean presidents including Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo-hwan. Lee claimed Yoon's declaration of martial law was "dictatorship." Yoon stated that he never meant to impose full martial rule, instead arguing he intended to "warn the nation of the opposition Democratic Party's abuse of its parliamentary majority." He also denied having acted out of personal interest, saying it would have been "easier to just wait out the rest of his term."
  
  On 3 March, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun would call Yoon's arrest "illegal and unconstitutional" in a letter he wrote in his prison cell. In the letter, he would also call for Constitutional Court justices Moon Hyung-bae, Lee Mison and Chung Kyesun to be "punished." Kim also criticized students at Ewha Womans University that were in favor of Yoon's impeachment, calling them "a group of evil." Democratic Party Speaker Hwang Jung-a would criticize the letter, stating " is nothing different from Yoon, who regards anyone who criticizes him as an anti-government force and someone to be eliminated."
  
  During a court hearing on 17 March, former Defense Minister Kim claimed his reasoning for urging Yoon to declare martial law was because he wanted to "root out anti-state forces and overcome political deadlock". Kim would also deny that the martial law declaration was an attempted self-coup.