The appeals trial in the case of former President Yoon Suk-yeol's alleged obstruction of arrest will begin on Apr. 4 under the Seoul High Court's panel dedicated to insurrection and treason cases.
According to legal sources, the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 1 (presiding judge Yoon Seok-sik, senior judge) set the first court hearing in the case against the former president on charges including obstruction of special official duties and abuse of power to obstruct the exercise of rights for 2 p.m. on Mar. 4.
Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul High Court, together with Criminal Division 12, is a panel dedicated to cases of insurrection, treason, rebellion, and related offenses.
Earlier, on Feb. 16, the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 35 (presiding judge Baek Dae-hyun, senior judge), which heard the first trial, sentenced the former president to five years in prison.
The former president was indicted and detained by the special counsel for insurrection in July of the same year on charges that on Jan. 3 last year he mobilized Presidential Security Service staff to block the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) from executing an arrest warrant.
According to the indictment, at the time of the Dec. 3 proclamation of emergency martial law, the former president convened only some cabinet members merely to give the appearance of a Cabinet meeting, thereby obstructing the exercise of martial-law review authority by nine cabinet members who could not attend.
In addition, after the lifting of martial law, he is also charged with drafting a false proclamation as if martial law had been carried out according to a document countersigned (signed) by former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Minister of the Ministry of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, and later destroying it; these allegations were included in the indictment.