Former presidential secretary office Deputy Minister Kang Ui-gu was again sentenced to prison on appeal for allegedly drafting a "post-facto martial law proclamation" related to the Dec. 3 emergency martial law.
The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 12-3 (High Court Judges Kim Min-a, Lee Seung-chul, and Cho Jin-gu) on the 24th sentenced former Deputy Minister Kang, who was indicted on charges including drafting and using a false official document, to one year and six months in prison, the same as in the first trial.
Former Deputy Minister Kang was charged (drafting a false official document) with creating the cover page of the martial law proclamation on Dec. 6, 2024, three days after the emergency martial law was declared, and obtaining countersignatures (signatures) from former President Yoon Suk-yeol, former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, and former Minister of the Ministry of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun.
The court found that the document was a false official document drafted with the purpose of making it appear that the emergency martial law declaration had been lawfully made by a document countersigned in advance, and, as in the first trial, found the defendant guilty. The court said, "The defendant recognized that the dates of the signatures of Yoon Suk-yeol and others differed from the actual date the document was drafted."
It also, as in the first trial, found the defendant guilty of the charge of unlawfully discarding the post-facto martial law proclamation (violations of the Presidential Records Management Act and damage to official documents). It did not accept the allegation that the false proclamation was drafted with the intent to make it appear that the emergency martial law had undergone deliberation by the Cabinet meeting. The court viewed that this content was not directly included in the proclamation.
As in the first trial, it found the defendant not guilty of the charge of using the post-facto proclamation. The reasoning was that former Deputy Minister Kang merely kept the document in an office drawer and therefore did not harm public trust in the document.
Former Deputy Minister Kang was indicted without detention by the special prosecutor's team for insurrection in December last year. After being sentenced to prison in the first trial in May, Kang was taken into custody in court.