South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a seven-year prison sentence for former President Yoon Suk Yeol in the first case to reach the country’s highest court from his several criminal trials related to his brief imposition of martial law in 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 arrest him weeks after his impeachment.
Martial law lasted only hours before lawmakers broke through a blockade of heavily armed soldiers and police at Seoul’s National Assembly and voted to repeal it, forcing Yoon’s Cabinet to lift the measure.
Yoon remains in detention and did not attend the ruling, which is final. He is still standing trial in other cases, and he has appealed the life sentence he received for the most serious conviction against him, on the charge of rebellion.
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