Ex-S. Korean Leader Sentenced To Death

Former military strongmen Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were found guilty of mutiny and treason today. Chun was sentenced to death while Roh was given 22-1/2 years in prison.

A three-judge panel found the two ex-presidents guilty of staging a coup 17 years ago, then causing hundreds of deaths in a violent crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising six months later.

The verdicts and sentences closed what media here had dubbed “the trial of the century,” an examination of one of the darkest eras in South Korea’s modern history.

Even if Chun’s death sentence is upheld by the country’s highest court, execution is rare in South Korea and it is unlikely the sentence would be carried out.