Former Minister of Justice Park Sung-jae, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the first trial on charges of involvement in the process of declaring the Dec. 3 martial law, has appealed.
According to legal sources on the 27th, Park's side filed a notice of appeal the previous day with the Criminal Agreement Division 33 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jin-gwan).
Earlier, on the 22nd, the court sentenced the former Minister to 25 years in prison and detained Park in court on charges including serving in key duties for insurrection and abuse of authority. The sentence exceeds the 20 years in prison sought by the special counsel investigating the insurrection case (Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-suk).
The court defined former President Yoon Suk-yeol's Dec. 3 martial law declaration and proclamation, and attempts to control and occupy the National Assembly and the National Election Commission, as a "riot for the purpose of subverting the constitutional order" and a "praetorian coup." It then found all charges guilty, saying the former Minister sequentially took part in the insurrection crime by issuing an emergency standby order to the Ministry of Justice Immigration Service's departure-ban team after the martial law declaration and directing the securing of space in correctional facilities.
The court also ruled that, in the process, the former Minister abused ministerial authority by directing the attendance of staff in charge of departure bans and, after the lifting of martial law, having the Ministry of Justice's Prosecution Division draft a "document justifying authority abuse" that contained arguments to legitimize the martial law.
However, the court dismissed the indictment on the charge (violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act) that the former Minister, in May last year, received an improper request for official action from first lady Kim Keon-hee to ascertain the background of the formation of a dedicated investigation team at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office for the "luxury bag receipt case" and had the related case disposed of as no charge.
After the first trial sentencing, the former Minister's attorney told reporters, "We will of course appeal, and since many facts have been distorted, we will contest them in the appeals trial."