The Supreme Court will deliver its ruling Thursday in the appeal case against former President Yoon Suk-yeol over charges including obstructing his arrest by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO). The ruling comes 583 days after the Dec. 3 declaration of emergency martial law. It marks the first Supreme Court judgment among Yoon's multiple trials. The verdict will be broadcast live. However, since defendants are not required to attend appeal hearings, Yoon will not appear in court.
The Supreme Court's third division, presided over by Justice Lee Suk-yeon, will hold the sentencing hearing at 2 p.m. in Courtroom No. 1 at the Supreme Court. The charges include special obstruction of official duties and abuse of power obstructing the exercise of rights.
Yoon was indicted in July last year by the special counsel team investigating the insurrection. He is accused of mobilizing Presidential Security Service personnel in January last year, during the early stage of the Dec. 3 martial law investigation, to block the CIO's execution of an arrest warrant. He also faces charges of infringing on the martial law deliberation rights of nine Cabinet members by convening only some members to create the mere appearance of a Cabinet meeting before declaring martial law. Additionally, he is accused of fabricating a false declaration document after martial law was lifted—made to appear as though martial law had been carried out based on a document countersigned by former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun—and subsequently destroying it.
The ruling will also mark the Supreme Court's first judgment on the legality of the CIO investigation, which underpins the charges. Yoon's side has consistently argued since the martial law declaration that the CIO lacks investigative authority and that the execution of the arrest warrant was therefore unlawful.
The first trial found Yoon guilty of the arrest obstruction and other charges, sentencing him to five years in prison.
The appeals court sentenced him to seven years in prison. This was heavier than the first-trial sentence but less than the 10-year sentence sought by the special counsel team. The appeals court found Yoon guilty on all charges of blocking the CIO's execution of the arrest warrant and of infringing on the martial law deliberation rights of nine absent Cabinet members by convening only some members to create the appearance of a Cabinet meeting at the time of the declaration. It also overturned the first trial's acquittal and found him guilty of ordering the dissemination of press guidance (PG) containing the false statement that he "had not the slightest intention of destroying the constitutional order" to foreign media. The court further found him guilty of fabricating a false declaration document after martial law was lifted (fabrication of false official documents) and subsequently destroying it (violation of the Presidential Records Act and destruction of public documents). However, like the first trial, it acquitted him of the charge of using the false official document.
Meanwhile, the main case related to the emergency martial law—the charge of leading an insurrection—is under second-trial proceedings at the Seoul High Court's dedicated insurrection panel. The first trial sentenced Yoon to life imprisonment on the insurrection leadership charge. Yoon was separately sentenced to 30 years in prison in the first trial on charges including general benefiting of the enemy over the "Pyongyang drone infiltration." He was acquitted in the first trial on a perjury charge related to former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's trial, and in four other criminal trials, he either awaits first-trial rulings this month or remains under hearing.
