"Defendant Yoon Suk-yeol is sentenced to life imprisonment."
At the moment the ruling was read aloud in Criminal Grand Courtroom 417 at the Seoul Central District Court on the afternoon of the 19th, the air in the courtroom grew even more tense. In the courtroom packed with reporters and spectators, eyes turned to the defendant's bench. Yoon Suk-yeol, the former president who was to be sentenced, stared straight ahead with a hardened expression and did not change his posture much.
The Criminal Division 25 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Jee Kui-youn) held the first-trial sentencing hearing that day for the case of the ringleader of insurrection related to the Dec. 3 emergency martial-law incident and sentenced the former president Yoon to life imprisonment.
The former president Yoon entered the courtroom that day wearing a white dress shirt and a dark navy suit. On the left side of the chest, he wore a name tag marked with the inmate number "3617." Immediately after entering, he bowed to the bench from the waist.
The court densely deployed 20 to 30 court security officers from Entrance 5 to the front of the courtroom. Before sentencing, the bench also asked the gallery for cooperation, saying, "If there is a disturbance or strange behavior during the pronouncement of the verdict, we will have no choice but to take strong measures such as removal."
The sentencing lasted about 60 minutes. The former president Yoon was mostly expressionless, but there were moments when an unfamiliar tension showed. At times he sighed, lowered his gaze to the floor, and blinked frequently. When the bench summarized its judgment to the effect that "the defendant Yoon Suk-yeol is guilty as the ringleader of insurrection," he kept his lips tightly closed and bowed his head. As the reasons for sentencing continued, he was also seen frequently biting his lips.
When Presiding Judge Jee Kui-youn said, "I will read the ruling," had the defendants rise, and then pronounced the sentence for the former president Yoon, the former president Yoon kept his posture and looked straight ahead.
After the ruling was pronounced and as the bench began to leave, chants erupted from the gallery. Some supporters shouted, "Mr. President, stay strong," and "Yoon again." The former president Yoon turned his head to look at the gallery and gave a faint smile. He then shook hands with his defense team and exchanged brief words, bowed his head to the bench, and left. The courtroom broadcast also showed the former president Yoon sharing a brief conversation with attorney Yoon Gap-keun seated next to him and then smiling.
Kim Yong-hyun, the former Minister of the Ministry of National Defense, who was sentenced alongside him, stared straight ahead with a hardened expression as a 30-year prison term was handed down.
The bench found that the former president Yoon's proclamation of emergency martial law and the subsequent series of acts constituted the crime of insurrection under the Criminal Act, which requires the purposes of "subverting the constitutional order" and "rioting." The bench said, "The most central fact in this case is sending the military to the National Assembly," and judged that "it accords with the substance that martial law was declared because there was a decision to subdue the National Assembly even by mobilizing force."