Former President Yoon Suk-yeol, sentenced to five years in prison in the first trial on charges including obstructing the execution of an arrest warrant by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), will face his first appellate hearing.
According to legal sources on June 4, the Criminal Division 1 of Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Yoon Sung-sik) will open the first appellate hearing at 2 p.m. for former President Yoon, who was indicted on charges including special obstruction of official duties. As this is a formal trial rather than a pretrial hearing, Yoon must appear in court. This marks the first appellate case to be handled by the court division dedicated to insurrection-related cases.
Yoon was indicted on charges including obstructing the CIO's arrest warrant execution through the Presidential Security Service following the declaration of martial law. On January 16, the first trial court found him guilty of infringing on cabinet ministers' rights to deliberate at cabinet meetings, drafting and destroying the martial law proclamation after the fact, ordering the removal and deletion of secure phones, and blocking the CIO's arrest warrant execution. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Following the sentencing, both the special counsel for insurrection cases (Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok) and Yoon's legal team filed appeals. However, the case remained pending at Criminal Division 20 of Seoul High Court due to issues regarding the designation of a dedicated insurrection court. Seoul High Court subsequently established Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Yoon Sung-sik, Judges Min Sung-chul and Lee Dong-hyun) and Criminal Division 12 (Judges Lee Seung-chul, Cho Jin-gu, and Kim Min-ah) as dedicated insurrection divisions, with formal case assignment completed on May 23.
The court plans to broadcast the trial. The special counsel had requested trial broadcasting on May 26. Accordingly, the court intends to broadcast all hearings from today's first trial through future proceedings.