Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has been given a suspended 18-month prison sentence after being found guilty of violating election law during his 2022 presidential campaign.
The ruling means Yoon will avoid immediate imprisonment unless the suspended sentence is overturned or he commits another offence during the suspension period. The verdict can still be appealed.
If the conviction is upheld through the appeals process, the political consequences could extend beyond Yoon himself.
His conservative People Power Party may be required to repay 39.7 billion won (around $27.1 million) in election expenses that were reimbursed by South Korea's National Election Commission following his presidential victory.
The reimbursement system is designed to support candidates who meet the legal requirements for campaign funding, but a final conviction for election law violations can trigger repayment.
The election law conviction adds to a growing list of legal troubles for Yoon following his dramatic fall from power.
Earlier this year, a Seoul court sentenced the former president to 30 years in prison after finding him guilty of abuse of power and aiding the enemy over a covert drone operation into North Korea in October 2024.
Prosecutors argued the flights were intended to "fabricate wartime conditions" that could justify his subsequent declaration of martial law. The emergency martial law was declared by Yoon on the night of Dec 3, 2024, but it was revoked hours later by the National Assembly.
Yoon denied any involvement, with his lawyers insisting he neither ordered nor approved the drone operation.
He has also appealed a separate life sentence handed down earlier this year for leading an insurrection after his short-lived martial law declaration, which prosecutors said was intended to paralyse the National Assembly.
Yoon was removed from office after South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment, ending one of the country's most turbulent presidencies and triggering a snap election won by liberal leader Lee Jae Myung.
His latest conviction, although suspended, further deepens the legal and political challenges facing the former president as multiple criminal cases continue to move through South Korea's courts.
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