Former President Yoon Suk-yeol was sentenced on appeal to seven years in prison on charges including obstructing the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) from executing an arrest warrant and infringing Cabinet members' authority to deliberate on martial law. As many charges that were found not guilty at the first trial were overturned to guilty on appeal, the sentence increased from the first trial's five years.
The Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul High Court (presiding judge Yoon Seong-sik) on the 29th sentenced the former president to seven years in prison on charges including obstruction of special official duties and abuse of power to interfere with the exercise of rights. The sentence is two years longer than at the first trial, but lower than the 10-year prison term sought by the special counsel for insurrection.
◇ Court: "Yoon abandoned the duties of the president"
The court said, "At the time of the crimes, as the sitting president, he bore a heavy responsibility to uphold the Constitution and promote the people's freedom and rights, yet he abandoned the duties of the president by, among other things, aggravating social confusion through this case." It continued, "The crimes related to abuse of power to interfere with the exercise of the deliberation authority and the acts related to post hoc countersignatures to conceal the procedural defects in the proclamation of emergency martial law themselves constitute constitutional violations," adding, "The degree of illegality is great and the responsibility is heavy."
The former president kept his mouth shut and maintained a stiff expression throughout the sentencing. Even after a heavier sentence than at the first trial was handed down, he showed no particular change in expression. The hearing was broadcast live with the court's permission.
The former president was brought to trial on charges of mobilizing officials of the Presidential Security Service in January last year to obstruct the CIO's execution of an arrest warrant. He is also accused of infringing the martial law deliberation authority of Cabinet members by convening only some Cabinet members to create the appearance of a Cabinet meeting just before the Dec. 3 emergency martial law proclamation, leaving out the rest who could not attend.
The appellate court largely upheld the guilty findings from the first trial and overturned some not-guilty findings to guilty. The court, as in the first trial, found the former president guilty of obstruction of special official duties, abuse of power to interfere with the exercise of rights, and aiding and abetting a suspect's escape for mobilizing Presidential Security Service staff to block the CIO's execution of an arrest warrant.
It also upheld the first-trial guilty finding on the charge of instigating a violation of the Presidential Security Service Act by ordering Vice Administrator Kim Seong-hun of the security service to have the secure phone communication records of former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung and others deleted in preparation for an insurrection investigation.
Regarding the Cabinet meeting just before the proclamation of emergency martial law, the scope of guilty findings widened compared with the first trial. The appellate court found the former president guilty on all charges that he convened only some Cabinet members to give the appearance of a Cabinet meeting and infringed the martial law deliberation authority of nine Cabinet members who could not attend. The first trial had ruled that the abuse of power charges did not apply to the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, who did not attend despite being notified.
◇ First-trial guilty findings stand … some not-guilty findings overturned to guilty
The charge over drafting and disseminating a press guidance (PG) for foreign media also changed to guilty on appeal. The court overturned the first-trial not-guilty finding and found him guilty of ordering that the government's media guidance containing the false statement "there was not the slightest intent to destroy the constitutional order" be distributed to foreign media. The court said, "It not only concealed the wrongdoing committed in the process of proclaiming emergency martial law but also conveyed incorrect information on the lawfulness of the proclamation to foreign media," adding, "It negatively affected the Republic of Korea's credibility and the right to know in the international community."
The first-trial findings were maintained on the charge of having a post hoc proclamation drafted after the lifting of emergency martial law and then destroying it. The appellate court found him guilty of drafting a false proclamation to make it appear that emergency martial law had been carried out under a document signed by former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun after the lifting of martial law, and of violating the Act on the Management of Presidential Records and damage to official documents by destroying it. However, it found him not guilty, as in the first trial, on the charge of using a false official document.
Earlier, the first trial judged that the former president had effectively mobilized the security service to block the execution of a lawful arrest warrant and had not followed normal Cabinet procedures in the process of proclaiming emergency martial law, and sentenced him to five years in prison. The first trial found that the former president blatantly violated the rule of law by reducing the state organization, the security service, to "private soldiers" for personal gain and by disregarding martial law procedures.
The former president was indicted on charges including infringing Cabinet members' authority to deliberate on martial law, drafting and destroying the martial law proclamation after the fact, issuing false publicity after the emergency martial law, ordering the deletion of secure phone records, and obstructing the execution of an arrest warrant. The special counsel for insurrection on the 6th sought a 10-year prison term for the former president at the appellate closing hearing, the same as the sentence sought at the first trial.
The sentencing marked the first appellate ruling the former president has received in connection with the Dec. 3 emergency martial law incident and the first judgment by the Seoul High Court's insurrection panel. It is also the first second-instance sentence among the eight criminal trials he is facing.