South Korean president indicted on insurrection charges after martial law declaration
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(SEOUL) — South Korean prosecutors formally indicted President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday, charging him with insurrection over his brief imposition of martial law in December, according to opposition lawmakers and South Korean media.
“The prosecution has decided to indict Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing charges of being a ringleader of insurrection,” Democratic Party spokesman Han Min-soo told a press conference, Reuters reported. “The punishment of the ringleader of insurrection now begins finally.”
Yoon had declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country’s liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government. A South Korean court issued an arrest and search warrant on Dec. 31.
The indictment follows Yoon’s arrest ten days ago, when South Korean prosecutors finally succeeded in forcing him to surrender at his residence after a prolonged stand-off with his presidential bodyguard.
Yoon has previously pledged to fight the charges. He has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14.
(LONDON) — Munich police said at least 30 people, including several children, were injured after a “vehicle drove into a group of people” in the center of the city on Thursday morning.
“The driver was able to be secured on site and currently poses no further danger,” police said in a post in German on social media.
The incident is being treated as a “suspected attack,” Bavarian state Premier Markus Söder told journalists.
A 2-year-old child was critically wounded in the attack, according to a spokesperson for the Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital.
“Doctors are currently fighting for the toddler’s life,” the spokesperson said.
The suspect is a 24-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker residing in Munich, police said.
The suspect was already known to police because he “was listed as a witness due to his previous work as a store detective,” not because he was a known criminal, police said.
Authorities have not yet suggested a motive or named the suspect.
Florian Volm, a spokesperson for the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office, told ABC News that the Bavarian Central Office for Extremism and Terrorism of the Attorney General’s Office is “investigating today’s incident to find possible motives.”
Police said the incident occurred in the area of Dachauer Street and Seidle Street in the heart of Munich, close to the city’s central train station.
The incident occurred at Stilgmaierplatz, where a rally organized by the Verdi trade union was taking place from 10:30 a.m. local time, police said. The event was accompanied by police and therefore officers were already on site.
A Munich Police spokesperson told ABC News that the suspect overtook a police vehicle with his car before accelerating and plowing into the back of the demonstration. Police believe he acted alone.
Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter told reporters that “many people have been injured, including children. I am deeply shocked. My thoughts are with the injured.”
“The police have arrested the driver of the vehicle, but the exact circumstances are still unclear,” Reiter added.
Police said a “major operation” was underway, urging residents to avoid the area in order to assist emergency responders.
Images from the scene showed police and medical responders working near a damaged vehicle surrounded by belongings and debris. Police cordoned off the area of the incident as helicopters circled above. Police have not identified the suspect or the vehicle involved.
Thursday’s vehicle crash came less than two months after a car plowed through a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing two people and injuring nearly 70 others, local officials said at the time.
ABC News’ Helena Skinner, Felix Franz and Dada Jovanovic contributed to this report.
(TEL AVIV, Israel) — Three weeks ago, Hamdan Ballal stood on the stage at the Oscars, golden statue in hand, winner of the award for best documentary as the co-director of “No Other Land.” It was an inspiring moment of unity and coexistence.
On Tuesday, bloodied and bruised, he spoke to ABC News on the phone from a hospital bed in Hebron in the West Bank.
“I’m afraid,” Ballal said. “Really, I’m afraid. I feel, when they attack me, I will lose my life.”
Ballal said he was severely beaten at the hands of Jewish settlers at his home on Monday, just outside the village of Susiya.
Settlers had come into the village throwing stones and harassing residents, including his neighbor, something Ballal says had been happening with increasing frequency since his Oscar win earlier this month.
He started filming before rushing home to his family, trying to block settlers from coming into his house. That’s when the attack began, he said, with several men attacking his head and body, including hitting him with guns.
“It was a hard, hard attack,” Ballal said. “You know, I feel I will die, because this attack was so hard, I bleed from everywhere. I’m crying from deeply in my heart. I feel pain everywhere in my body. So, they continue attacking me like 15-20 minutes.”
He said that, in addition to a plainclothes settler, there were two men present he described as “soldiers with guns,” although he could not say for sure who they were or which Israeli authority they might have represented.
The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police have denied being involved in any beating.
Israeli authorities said that Ballal was detained along with several others on suspicion of throwing stones, damaging property and compromising the security of the area. A Jewish settler was arrested, as well.
The Palestinians — including Ballal — were questioned, held overnight and ultimately released “on conditions that include not contacting other people involved and self-bail,” according to a police statement.
Police say the investigation is continuing, but Ballal strongly denies he did anything wrong.
“I didn’t throw stones, I didn’t do any problems with the settlers,” Ballal said. “The settlers came attacking me and beating me. That’s it.”
Ballal’s Oscar-winning documentary focused on a community’s attempts to resist forced expulsion of Palestinians from a southern area of the West Bank by the Israeli government.
The number of Israeli settlers has dramatically increased in the West Bank in recent decades.
Palestinians, human rights groups and the United Nations have accused them of playing an unofficial role in the attempted displacement of Palestinians through the West Bank, with extremists carrying out violent attacks designed to intimidate, instill fear and ultimately force people out of a place they have called home for generations.
“The settler violence has worsened considerably since the war,” said Sari Bashi, a program director at Human Rights Watch. “The people whom the army doesn’t directly displace are left to fend for themselves among violent settlers who scare them off their land.”
Critics say the right-wing coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, at best, turned a blind eye to the violence and, at worst, outright encouraged it, with the ultimate goal, according to prominent settler activists and some far-right members of the government, of annexing the West Bank entirely.
The government has denied responsibility for settler violence and has primarily blamed Palestinians for the continued unrest, though sometimes it blames settlers as well. Netanyahu’s government, which refers to the West Bank by its biblical names of Judea and Samaria, argues that the area is replete with terrorist activity that targets Israelis both in West Bank settlements and inside Israel. The government argues its actions in the West Bank are necessary to keep Israelis safe.
Activists often say that the Israeli Police and the IDF, who have security control over most of the West Bank, fail to protect them from settler attacks or adequately prosecute cases of settler violence. The IDF intervenes when scuffles between settlers and activists escalate, but prosecuting settler violence is rare. From 2005 to 2024, only 3% of more than 1,000 investigations ended in convictions, according to the nongovernmental organization Yesh Din.
The settlers often cite a deep religious imperative for their actions. Others view attacks as vengeance for deadly Palestinian terror attacks. Many routinely deny responsibility for the West Bank acts of violence that have risen in recent years but have gone on for decades.
Ballal was released from the hospital on Tuesday. ABC News asked why he chose to speak publicly if he is afraid for his life.
“I’ve been afraid like this since I was born, until now,” Ballal said. “So, I have to speak. Yes, I’m afraid, but I live this situation all my life. So I hope, I hope, because I speak with [ABC News], it can change something.”
ABC News’ Guy Davies, Mike Pappano and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
(ALLAHABAD, INDIA) — At least seven people were killed and around 10 injured in a stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s biggest gatherings that occurs every 12 years, authorities said.
The Maha Kumbh Mela takes place every dozen years in the Indian city of Prayagraj, about 90 miles west of the holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, when an estimated 100 million people gather to bathe in holy river waters at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati rivers. It is considered one of the most auspicious and holy dates on the Hindu calendar.
The stampede began in the early hours Wednesday morning, according to Indian officials. The death toll and numbers of those injured is expected to rise.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic at the festival but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the incident “extremely sad” and extended his condolences to those affected.
“My deepest condolences to the devotees who have lost their loved ones. Along with this, I wish for the speedy recovery of all the injured,” Modi said in a post on X.
Modi added that he is in touch with his chief minister and other related authorities regarding the incident.
Authorities are expecting more than 100 million people to visit Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh Mela — meaning “Festival of the Sacred Pitcher” — on Wednesday for the holy dip. It is regarded as a significant and auspicious day for Hindus due to a rare alignment of celestial bodies after 144 years.
Authorities have built a gigantic tent city on the banks of the rivers to accommodate the millions of pilgrims and tourists attending the festival — equipped with 3,000 kitchens, 150,000 toilets, roads, electricity, water, communication towers and 11 hospitals, according to the Associated Press.
An estimated 50,000 security personnel are also stationed in the city to help keep the peace as well as manage the tens of millions of people in the crowds.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian and Prashun Mazumdar contributed to this report.
