▲ Former Defense Security Commander Yeo In-hyung (from left), former Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo, former Defense Intelligence Commander Moon Sang-ho, former Army Chief of Staff Park An-su, and former Special Warfare Commander Kwak Jong-keun
Former high-ranking military generals who participated in the December 3 martial law have been sentenced to prison terms.
The 26th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Hyun-kyung) sentenced former Defense Security Commander Yeo In-hyung, who was indicted on charges of engaging in important missions of insurrection and abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights, to 18 years in prison today (September 21).
Former Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The special counsel team for the insurrection, led by Cho Eun-seok, had previously demanded 30-year prison terms for each of them.
Former Defense Intelligence Commander Moon Sang-ho was sentenced to 12 years in prison, former Army Chief of Staff Park An-su, who served as martial law commander at the time of the incident, to 10 years in prison, and former Special Warfare Commander Kwak Jong-keun to 9 years in prison.
The court found most of the charges against them guilty, including deploying troops to the National Assembly and the National Election Commission and organizing and operating politician arrest squads during the December 3 martial law.
The court determined that immediately after the declaration of martial law, former Commander Yeo organized an "anti-state forces joint arrest squad" seeking to arrest around 10 politicians, including then Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung.
The court also recognized as facts that he was instructed by former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to take control of the Election Commission and secure computer data, dispatched Defense Security Command troops to the Election Commission, and committed perjury regarding the martial law troops' infiltration of the Election Commission during the Constitutional Court's impeachment trial of former President Yoon Suk Yeol and military court trials.
Based on former Commander Yeo's notes containing details about the joint politician arrest squad and the operation of a special task force on election fraud, the court pointed out that he had actively conspired in advance with former President Yoon Suk Yeol and others.
The court also noted that he recognized the illegality of the martial law declaration's purpose through multiple prior meetings with former President Yoon Suk Yeol, former Minister Kim Yong-hyun, and others.
Former Commander Lee Jin-woo was found guilty of ordering Capital Defense Command troops to mobilize to the National Assembly upon the declaration of martial law.
The court explained that just before the passage of the National Assembly's resolution demanding the lifting of martial law, he received instructions from former President Yoon Suk Yeol to drag lawmakers out and passed them on directly to unit members.
Former Chief of Staff Park An-su was found guilty of participating in the insurrection by issuing unconstitutional and illegal proclamations as martial law commander and ordering the Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency to blockade the National Assembly.
The court pointed out that former Chief of Staff Park was at least conditionally aware that former President Yoon Suk Yeol intended to make the exercise of the National Assembly's authority impossible by issuing unconstitutional and illegal proclamations.
He argued that his actions at the time were coerced by higher-ups, but the court did not accept this.
The court reasoned that as the Army Chief of Staff with access to military intelligence, he recognized that the situation did not constitute an emergency, yet failed to make separate recommendations to his superiors.
Former Commander Moon Sang-ho was found guilty of participating in prior conspiracies for martial law and deploying troops to the Election Commission, while former Commander Kwak Jong-keun was found guilty of dispatching Special Warfare Command troops to the National Assembly, the Democratic Party headquarters, and the Gwacheon complex of the Election Commission.
Regarding the reasoning for the sentencing, the court criticized, "The crime of insurrection, which threatens the existence of the nation, is as serious as any crime can be. The defendants abandoned the political neutrality of the military and used the military politically for specific forces."
(Photo: Provided by the Constitutional Court, Yonhap News)
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