The special counsel for insurrection asked the court in the appeals trial to sentence former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to 23 years in prison on charges including engaging in key duties for insurrection in connection with the Dec. 3 emergency martial law. In the first trial, prosecutors sought 15 years, but the court handed down 23 years, exceeding that request.
The Criminal Division 12-1 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Lee Seung-cheol, Cho Jin-goo, and Kim Min-a) held the closing hearing of Han's appeal on the 7th and set the verdict for 2 p.m. on May 7. The special counsel said, "The original sentence of 23 years in prison matches the defendant's culpability," and asked the court to "impose the same sentence as the original ruling."
The special counsel viewed Han as having been involved in shoring up, rather than correcting, the defective process of declaring martial law. As prime minister and vice chair of the Cabinet, Han was in a position to check the president's arbitrary exercise of power, but instead of stopping the illegal declaration of emergency martial law, he joined in giving it procedural appearance. The special counsel also argued that ignoring the National Assembly's resolution demanding the lifting of emergency martial law constituted engaging in key duties for insurrection.
The special counsel also noted that Han sought to conceal the truth by drafting false official documents and committing perjury rather than revealing the substance of the insurrection. In the appeals trial, he continued to deny the crimes and repeatedly answered key questions by saying he "does not remember," and, while serving as acting president, failed to appoint Constitutional Court justices, which the special counsel said fueled national division.
In addition to aiding the president's illegal declaration of emergency martial law, Han faces charges of signing a martial law declaration document that former Presidential Office Secretary for Administrative Affairs Kang Ui-gu drafted after the fact and asking that it be discarded, as well as giving false testimony in Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment trial by saying he did not know about the martial law proclamation. The first-instance court defined the Dec. 3 emergency martial law as an "insurrection from above," a "loyalist coup," and sentenced Han to 23 years in prison, taking him into custody in the courtroom.
In his closing statement, Han apologized for failing to stop the declaration of martial law but did not accept that he contributed to the declaration of emergency martial law. "I was shocked to an extreme degree when I received the notification of the declaration of martial law, something I could not have imagined even in my dreams," he said. "As prime minister, I feel infinite responsibility before the people and history," he said. However, he argued, "Judged by a public official's conscience, the claim that I contributed to the declaration of emergency martial law is not a historical fact."