10-year prison term sought for ex-South Korean Prez Yoon in obstruction of justice appeals trial
Seoul: A special counsel team on Monday demanded a 10-year prison term for South Korea’s former President Yoon Suk Yeol during the appeals trial of his obstruction of justice case stemming from his 2024 imposition of martial law.
Special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team sought the sentence at the final hearing at the Seoul High Court, double the five-year term handed down by a lower court in January.
Yoon was convicted by the lower court of obstructing investigators from detaining him last year and calling only select Cabinet members to a meeting to review his martial law plan, Yonhap News Agency reported.
He was also found guilty of creating and then discarding a false proclamation after the martial law decree was lifted, but acquitted of charges that he ordered the distribution of false press statements.
“The nature of the crime is bad as he abused his position as president to destroy the constitutional order and privatise state power,” a special counsel team member said, referring to Yoon’s alleged orders to the Presidential Security Service to block his detention.
“Since the first ruling, he has had an opportunity to apologise to the people, but he continues to claim his innocence by consistently making excuses.”
Later in the session, the bench will hear the final arguments of Yoon’s lawyers and his own final statement.
The court is expected to deliver its ruling before the end of June, given that sentencing hearings are typically held within two months of closing arguments.
Yoon has been standing a total of eight trials in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024, his wife’s alleged corruption and the 2023 death of a Marine.
In the main case, a court sentenced him in February to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection through his declaration of martial law.
Yoon has been jailed since July pending the trials.