Supreme Court to Deliver Final Ruling on Former President Yoon Suk Yeol at 2 P.M. Today

The judiciary is set to deliver its final ruling today (July 9) regarding the case of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who faces charges including obstruction of an arrest warrant issued by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO).

This marks the first Supreme Court decision among the various trials involving the former president, coming 583 days, or approximately one year and seven months, after the declaration of the December 3 emergency martial law.

The Supreme Court's Third Petty Bench (Presiding Justice Lee Sook-yeon) will hold the sentencing hearing for the appeal at 2 p.m. in Courtroom No. 1 of the Supreme Court, addressing charges including obstruction of special public duties and abuse of power.

The sentencing will be broadcast live, marking the first time a Supreme Court ruling on a case indicted by the three special counsel teams (investigating insurrection, Kim Keon-hee, and the death of a Marine) will be aired in real-time.

However, as defendants are not required to attend appellate hearings, the former president will not be present in court.

Previously, the special counsel team investigating the insurrection indicted the former president in July of last year. He was charged with mobilizing Presidential Security Service staff in January of last year, during the early stages of the December 3 emergency martial law investigation, to block the execution of an arrest warrant issued by the CIO.

The former president is also accused of infringing upon the martial law deliberation rights of nine cabinet members by convening only a select few to create the appearance of a cabinet meeting before the declaration.

Additional charges include the creation of a false declaration document, as if the martial law had been signed by former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, and the subsequent destruction of that document after the martial law was lifted.

In January, the first trial court found him guilty of charges including obstruction of arrest and sentenced him to five years in prison.

The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Yoon Seong-sik), which handled the second trial, sentenced him to seven years in prison this past April.

While this sentence is longer than the first, it is less than the 10-year term requested by the special counsel team.

The second trial upheld all guilty verdicts regarding the obstruction of the CIO arrest warrant and the infringement of the deliberation rights of the nine cabinet members who were excluded from the meeting.

The court also overturned the first trial's acquittal regarding the charge of directing the dissemination of a press guidance (PG) document to foreign media, which contained the false claim that the former president had no intention of destroying the constitutional order, and found him guilty.

The second trial court also upheld convictions for the creation of false official documents after the lifting of martial law, as well as violations of the Presidential Records Act and damage to public documents.

However, the court maintained the first trial's acquittal regarding the charge of uttering those false official documents.

Following the second trial, both the former president's legal team and the special counsel team filed appeals, leading to the Supreme Court's final review.

Also today, the Supreme Court will deliver rulings on Yoon Young-ho, former world headquarters director of the Unification Church, who is charged with providing bribes to Kim Keon-hee and others in exchange for favors regarding church issues, and Jeon Seong-bae, a figure known as Geonjin Beopsa, who was indicted for conspiring with Kim to receive bribes from the church.

The Supreme Court's Third Petty Bench will hold the sentencing hearings for Yoon and Jeon at 11:15 a.m. in Courtroom No. 2 of the Supreme Court.

The presiding justices for the cases of Yoon and Jeon are Supreme Court Justices Oh Seok-jeon and Noh Kyung-pil, respectively.

Yoon was sentenced to one year and six months in prison in the second trial for charges including delivering gifts such as a Graff diamond necklace and a Chanel bag to Kim Keon-hee multiple times through Jeon Seong-bae in 2022, and for providing 100 million won in illegal political funds to politicians, including People Power Party lawmaker Kwon Seong-dong, while requesting support for Unification Church events between 2021 and 2024.

Jeon was sentenced to five years in prison in the second trial.

In the second trial, in addition to the charge of conspiring with Kim Keon-hee to receive bribes from the Unification Church, Jeon was found guilty of receiving a total of 30 million won from Yoon in 2022 in exchange for soliciting a position as a consultant for the Unification Group, as well as receiving 200 million won in bribes from various companies between 2022 and 2025 in exchange for favors.

(Photo: Provided by Seoul Central District Court, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.