The first-trial verdict on Jan. 16 will be handed down for former President Yoon Suk-yeol over charges including obstructing the execution of an arrest warrant by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) in January last year. It is the first ruling among seven cases in which Yoon was indicted in connection with the Dec. 3 martial law declaration. Earlier, the special counsel sought a 10-year prison term in this case.
The Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 35 (Presiding Judge Baek Dae-hyun) will hold the first-trial sentencing hearing for Yoon in Courtroom 35 at 2 p.m. on charges including obstructing special official duties, aiding and abetting a suspect's escape, and abuse of authority to interfere with the exercise of rights.
The charges of obstructing special official duties were applied to a case on Jan. 3 last year, in which Yoon mobilized Presidential Security Service staff to block CIO investigators from executing an arrest warrant. In connection with this case, Yoon was arrested and indicted in July last year by the special counsel team investigating insurrection led by Cho Eun-suk.
Yoon is also charged with infringing on the deliberation rights of nine Cabinet members who could not attend the meeting by convening only some Cabinet members to merely fulfill the formality of a Cabinet meeting at the time of the martial law declaration. After the lifting of martial law, he is also accused of drafting a false proclamation as if martial law had been carried out according to a document countersigned by former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, then shredding and discarding it.
He is additionally charged with ordering the dissemination to foreign media of a press guidance (PG; the government's position for media response) containing the false statement "there was not the slightest intent to destroy the constitutional order," and ordering the deletion of secure phone communication records of former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung and others.
At the sentencing hearing on the 26th of last month, the special counsel asked the court to sentence Yoon to 10 years in prison. Regarding the charge of obstructing the execution of the arrest warrant, it said, "He mobilized Presidential Security Service officials like private soldiers to use physical force and organized an unprecedented obstruction of official duties to block the execution of the warrant," and sought five years in prison, exceeding the aggravated range of the sentencing guidelines (1 to 4 years).
For the charges of infringing Cabinet members' deliberation rights, issuing false public communications, and deleting secure phone records, the special counsel sought three years in prison each, and for the charge of drafting the post-facto martial law proclamation, two years in prison.
In his final statement, Yoon said, "Presidential protection cannot be excessive, no matter how far it goes." On the legality of the CIO's investigation, he argued, "The CIO says it detected insurrection while investigating abuse of authority, but it has no investigative authority over abuse of authority itself," adding, "An agency without the right to prosecute fundamentally cannot investigate."
On the charge of infringing Cabinet members' deliberation rights, he said, "Deliberation is merely advisory to the president, so it is questionable whether this constitutes a rights-and-obligations relationship between the president and Cabinet members," adding, "Because it was the exercise of national emergency powers for the first time in 45 years, please understand that it was difficult to proceed like a routine Cabinet meeting."
Whether the CIO's investigation was lawful and whether there were procedural flaws in the martial law declaration are also core issues in the trial on the charge of being a ringleader of insurrection, considered the main stream of the martial law-related cases. For this reason, observers say this ruling will serve as a watershed for gauging the trajectory of future insurrection-related trials.
Meanwhile, considering public interest and public benefit, the court decided to broadcast the sentencing live. However, the feed may be slightly delayed due to technical circumstances. The moment of sentencing in the courtroom will be filmed with the court's own equipment and provided to broadcasters in real time.
This is the third time a former president's sentencing has been broadcast live. The court live-broadcast the April 2018 sentencing in Park Geun-hye's state influence-peddling case and the July 2018 sentencing in the National Intelligence Service special operation expenses case, and it also live-broadcast the October 2018 sentencing in former President Lee Myung-bak's embezzlement and bribery case.