On the 26th, the special counsel probing insurrection asked the court to sentence former President Yoon Suk-yeol to 10 years in prison at a closing hearing on charges including obstructing his arrest and infringing Cabinet members' rights to deliberate and resolve on martial law. By count: ▲ five years for obstructing arrest ▲ three years for infringing Cabinet members' authority ▲ two years for drafting a false emergency martial law proclamation, among others.
Park Eok-su, deputy special counsel with the insurrection special counsel, at the closing hearing held that day before the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Agreement Division 35 (Presiding Judge Baek Dae-hyun), on charges including obstructing the execution of special official duties and abuse of power to obstruct the exercise of rights, said, "The crimes in this case are a grave offense in which the defendant privatized state institutions to conceal and justify the defendant's own crimes," and sought the sentence as above.
The special counsel said, "The Republic of Korea is a democratic republic, and all power comes from the people; the president's power is no exception," adding, "Under the pretext of changing an imperial presidency, the defendant moved the presidential office from the Blue House to Yongsan but did not follow any of the checks on an imperial presidency."
The special counsel added, "By committing the crimes in a self-serving way, the defendant severely damaged Korea's legal order and deeply wounded the people who trusted the defendant and elected the president," and said, "Nevertheless, during the investigation and trial, rather than conveying remorse or an apology to the people, the defendant repeatedly asserted the legitimacy of declaring emergency martial law." The special counsel also said, "It is necessary to hold the defendant strictly accountable to restore the constitutional order and rule of law damaged by the defendant and to ensure that crimes of abuse of power by the highest authority never recur in Korea's history."
Regarding the charge of obstructing the CIO's arrest, the special counsel said it sought five years in prison—heavier than the sentencing guideline's aggravated range of one to four years—citing that "there is no precedent for militarizing officials of the Presidential Security Service to systematically block the execution of a warrant."
After the lifting of emergency martial law, the former president is also accused of creating a false proclamation to make it appear that martial law had been executed under a document countersigned by former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, and of shredding and discarding this document, which is a presidential record and an official document. There are also charges that the defendant ordered the dissemination to foreign media of a press guidance (PG) containing the false statement that "there was not the slightest intent to destroy the constitutional order," ordered the deletion of secure-phone communication logs of former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung and others, and ordered the Presidential Security Service to block execution of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials' arrest warrant. PG stands for press guidance, meaning the government's media response statement.
The former president appeared in court wearing a navy suit and watched the sentencing request with a stern expression. After the request, the former president's side raised a procedural objection, and the court continued to examine evidence. The defense's closing argument and the former president's final statement are to follow.
The special counsel judged that, at the time of the emergency martial law declaration, the former president convened only certain Cabinet members favorable to the defendant to provide merely the appearance of a Cabinet meeting and thereby infringed the constitutional rights of nine Cabinet members who could not attend to deliberate and resolve on martial law, and indicted the defendant in custody in July.
Witness examinations for former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min and former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok had also been scheduled before the day's closing procedure, but both did not appear, and the witness examinations were withdrawn.
Before adjourning, the court is expected to set a sentencing date. At a previous hearing, the court had indicated it would hand down the sentence on Jan. 16. The intent was to meet the special counsel act's requirement that the first-instance verdict be delivered within six months of the indictment date. If sentencing is carried out on Jan. 16 as previously indicated, it will be the first ruling not only among the four emergency martial law-related trials for the former president but also among the seven trials in which the former president has been indicted.