NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) — Nottingham Forest's Champions League hopes were dealt a blow after a 2-0 loss to Brentford in the Premier League on Thursday.
Forest could have moved up to third in the standings with a win but remains in sixth place with four rounds of the season to go.
Kevin Schade opened the scoring for Brentford at the City Ground in the 44th minute and Yoane Wissa sealed victory in 70th.
Forest is behind fifth-place Chelsea on goal difference.
The top five in the standings will qualify for the Champions League after England's top flight was handed a bonus place for the performance its teams in Europe this season.
The battle to qualify remains wide open with just five points separating third-place Newcastle and Aston Villa in seventh.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White, left, and Brentford's Yoane Wissa in action during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Brentford at City Ground, Nottingham, England, Thursday May 1, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Brentford's Kevin Schade celebrates scoring during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Brentford at City Ground, Nottingham, England, Thursday May 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
Brentford's Yoane Wissa celebrates scoring during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Brentford at City Ground, Nottingham, England, Thursday May 1, 2025. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An independent counsel on Tuesday demanded a death sentence for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024.
Removed from office last April, Yoon faces eight trials over various criminal charges related to his martial law debacle and other scandals related to his time in office. Charges that he directed a rebellion are the most significant ones.
Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team requested the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Yoon to death, according to the court.
The Seoul court is expected to deliver a verdict on Yoon in February. Experts say the court likely will sentence him to life in prison. South Korea hasn't executed anyone since 1997.
Yoon was scheduled to make remarks at Tuesday's hearing. He has maintained that his decree was a desperate yet peaceful attempt to raise public awareness about what he considered the danger of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, which used its legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. He called the opposition-controlled parliament “a den of criminals” and “anti-state forces.”
Yoon’s decree, the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea, brought armed troops into Seoul streets to encircle the assembly and enter election offices. That evoked traumatic memories of dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed rulers used martial law and other emergency decrees to station soldiers and armored vehicles in public places to suppress pro-democracy protests.
On the night of Yoon's martial law declaration, thousands of people rushed to the National Assembly to object to the decree and demand his resignation in dramatic scenes. Enough lawmakers, including even those in Yoon’s ruling party, managed to enter an assembly hall to vote down the decree.
Observers described Yoon’s action as political suicide. Parliament impeached him and sent the case to the Constitutional Court, which ruled to dismiss him as president.
It was a spectacular downfall for Yoon, a former star prosecutor who won South Korea’s presidency in 2022, a year after entering politics.
Lee Jae Myung, a former Democratic Party leader who led Yoon's impeachment bid, became president by winning a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to delve into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.
There had been speculation that Yoon resorted to martial law to protect his wife, Kim Keon Hee, from potential corruption investigations. But in wrapping up a six-month investigation last month, independent counsel Cho’s team concluded that Yoon plotted for over a year to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and monopolize power.
Yoon’s decree and ensuing power vacuum plunged South Korea into political turmoil, halted the country’s high-level diplomacy and rattled its financial markets.
Yoon’s earlier vows to fight attempts to impeach and arrest him deepened the country’s political divide. In January last year, he became the country’s first sitting president to be detained.
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside of Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
FILE - Then South Korea's ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol who is facing charges of orchestrating a rebellion when he declared martial law on Dec. 3, arrives to attend his trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool, File)
