South Korea’s Supreme Court on July 9 upheld a 7-year prison sentence against former President Yoon Suk Yeol for obstructing investigators’ attempts to detain him after he briefly imposed martial law on the country in December 2024.
The court upheld an April ruling by the Seoul High Court that found Yoon guilty of infringing on Cabinet members’ right to deliberate before he declared martial law, falsifying the official proclamation to cover up the lapse before later destroying the document, and deploying presidential security forces to illegally resist law enforcement efforts to detain him weeks after his impeachment.
The ruling came after the Seoul High Court increased his prison sentence to seven years from five in April, following its finding that Yoon was guilty of additional charges.
There was no misunderstanding of any legal interpretations in the previous court’s ruling, the Supreme Court said in its judgment, in the first case to reach the country’s highest court from Yoon’s several criminal trials.
“The lower court’s judgment contained no errors, such as exceeding the bounds of the principle of free evaluation of evidence in violation of logic or the rules of experience, or misapplying the relevant legal principles,” the presiding judge said, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.
The Supreme Court also upheld the appeals court’s finding that Yoon was guilty of falsifying documents and failing to follow the legal process required to impose martial law, which must be discussed at a formal cabinet meeting before it is enacted, as well as distributing false materials to foreign media, Yonhap reported.
Following the court’s decision, Yoon’s lawyers said they would challenge the ruling in the Constitutional Court.
“To protect the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, we plan to challenge the unconstitutionality of this ruling through constitutional adjudication procedures, including a constitutional complaint against the judgment,” his legal team told Yonhap.
The Constitutional Court is separate from the Supreme Court and can, in some instances, overrule or revoke Supreme Court verdicts if they are deemed unconstitutional.
They further said that, though they respected the court’s decision, they expressed “deep regret that the Supreme Court concluded such a grave case without sufficient deliberation.”
“By dismissing the appeal in an unusually hurried manner, even more rushed than ordinary cases, without even referring it to the full bench, the Supreme Court effectively abandoned its function as the highest court of the judiciary. This constitutes insufficient review and the politicization of the judiciary,” Yoon’s lawyers added.
Prosecutors, who had sought a 10-year prison term in the case, accused Yoon of abusing his power and hurting the public.
The conservative politician on Dec. 3, 2024, had attempted to impose martial law but backed down six hours later after the National Assembly—South Korea’s parliament—voted to overturn the decree.
He said at the time that he was seeking to protect the constitution because the opposition, which controlled the National Assembly, was sympathetic to communists and North Korea.
