S Korean court sentences former S Korea leader Yoon to prison for violating political funding laws

A South Korean court on Monday sentenced impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol to two years in prison for illegally receiving opinion polls that potentially helped him secure his party's 2022 presidential bid.

The polls were manipulated and Yoon received them for free and in return for political favors, according to the Associated Press. 

The Seoul Central District Court said Yoon violated the country’s political funding law. The political broker, Myung Tae-kyun, received a1.5-year sentence for the same charge.

The case is one of seven trials facing the former conservative president. He was impeached last year after he briefly imposition of martial law in December 2024, triggered South Korea’s biggest political crisis in decades.

The country’s Supreme Court has recently upheld a seven-year prison sentence against Yoon, his first case to reach the country’s highest court since the ouster.