Lee Sang-min, former minister of the interior and safety accused of ordering power and water cutoffs at media companies during the Dec. 3 martial law, was sentenced to nine years in prison on appeal. The sentence was two years longer than the seven-year term handed down in the first trial. The court raised the sentence, finding that the first-ruling punishment was light compared to Lee's culpability.
Noh Sang-won, former commander of the Defense Intelligence Command, received a final two-year prison sentence. Noh had been indicted on charges of receiving personal information on Defense Intelligence Command agents to form a "Second Investigation Unit" that would investigate election fraud allegations during the martial law period. It marks the first Supreme Court ruling related to the Dec. 3 martial law incident.
The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 1 (presiding judge Yoon Sung-sik), the insurrection-dedicated bench, sentenced Lee to nine years in prison on Wednesday on charges including engaging in important duties of insurrection and perjury. The special prosecution team led by Cho Eun-suk had earlier sought a 15-year sentence for Lee.
The appellate court found Lee guilty on most of the charges. The court ruled that Lee was guilty of receiving orders from former President Yoon Suk-yeol to seal off key institutions including the National Assembly and to cut power and water at media companies, and of then instructing the fire commissioner to cooperate. The court also deemed Lee's denial of the related orders during Yoon's impeachment trial in February last year to be false testimony.
"The defendant appears to have been well aware of the illegality of the martial law, yet engaged in important duties of insurrection," the court said. "From the investigative stage through the appeal, he consistently evaded and avoided legal responsibility." However, the court found Lee not guilty of abuse of authority charges alleging he forced the fire commissioner and frontline fire stations to perform duties they were not obligated to perform.
Separately, the Supreme Court's Second Division (presiding Justice Park Young-jae) on the same day upheld the lower court's ruling sentencing Noh to two years in prison and ordering the forfeiture of 24.9 million won. Noh had been indicted on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act and mediation bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. Noh had appealed, but the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, finding no errors such as misapplication of the law in the lower court's judgment.
Noh was indicted in June last year on charges of receiving personal information on Defense Intelligence Command agents to form the Second Investigation Unit of the martial law command's joint investigation headquarters, an off-the-books organization to investigate election fraud allegations after the martial law declaration. He also faces charges of receiving 20 million won in cash and 6 million won in department store gift certificates from Kim Bong-gyu, former head of the Defense Intelligence Command's Central Investigation Unit, and Koo Sam-hoe, commander of the Army's 2nd Armored Brigade, between August and September 2024 in exchange for promotion favors.
Meanwhile, the insurrection special prosecution team sought a five-year prison sentence for former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun on charges of leaking personal information on Defense Intelligence Command agents to form the Second Investigation Unit.
