Doctored photo falsely shared as 'mug shot of impeached South Korean president'

"Prisoner number 0010, head of insurrection. The red tag means prisoner on death row, it looks like they will execute him," read the Korean-language caption of an image purportedly showing Yoon in a prison jumpsuit, shared on Facebook on January 20, 2025.

It circulated days after Yoon had his mug shot taken and underwent a physical check before spending his first night in jail as a criminal suspect at the Seoul Detention Centre (archived link). Yoon was assigned the prisoner ID number 0010, according to local reports (archived link).

He was arrested in a dawn raid on January 15, becoming the first sitting South Korean head of state to be detained in a criminal inquiry on insurrection charges over his botched declaration of martial law.

If found guilty, Yoon could face the death penalty or life in jail (archived link).

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Screenshot of the altered image shared on Facebook, captured on January 23, 2025

Yoon also made his first appearance at a separate impeachment hearing on January 21, where he faced a grilling by judges who will decide whether to remove him from office (archived link).

The impeached leader and his legal team have sought to justify his attempt to suspend civilian rule on December 3 as a necessary measure due to election fraud, after the opposition won parliamentary elections by a landslide in April 2024.

The same image was shared alongside similar claims elsewhere on Facebook in groups and by users critical of the president here and here. 

"The outfit truly suits him, let's hope he wears it for the next 30 years," read a comment on one of the posts.

Another said: "They managed to get a humiliating shot of him, good job."

While South Korea does release the mug shots of detained suspects in certain circumstances, a police spokesperson told AFP that the president's mug shot has not yet been made public as of January 22, 2025 (archived link).

Local media reported authorities were unlikely to release the mug shot as the president's appearance is already widely known by the public (archived here and here). 

Composite image 

A combination of keyword and reverse image searches on Google led to a similar image that was used as a promotional still for the 2016 South Korean crime film "Proof of Innocence" on the online film database IMDb (archived link).

The image features actor Lee Mun-shik playing the role of a prisoner with the ID number "342", not "0010".

The same screenshot was also featured in local reports promoting the film from June 2016, including here and here (archived here and here).

A separate reverse image search on facial recognition tool PimEyes found the photo of Yoon superimposed on the movie still was published by The Korea Herald on December 31, 2024 (archived link).

Credited to South Korean news agency Yonhap, it was published as a file photo on a news report released weeks before Yoon was arrested (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the composite image shared online (left) and the movie screenshot as shown on IMDb (top right) and the Yonhap file photo of Yoon (bottom right):

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Screenshot comparison of the composite image shared online (left) and the movie screenshot as shown on IMDb (top right) and the Yonhap file photo of Yoon (bottom right)

AFP has debunked other misinformation that has swirled since Yoon's short-lived martial law bid here, here and here.