Former NIS Chief Cho Tae-yong Sentenced to 2.5 Years in Prison in Appeal Trial for Political Involvement, Heavier Sentence Than 1st Trial

Former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Cho Tae-yong, who was indicted on charges including spreading false information and engaging in politics following the December 3 martial law declaration, has received a heavier prison sentence in his appellate trial than in the first trial.

Unlike the first trial, the appellate court found him partially guilty of violating the National Intelligence Service Act, which is a core charge.

The 6-3 Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Min Dal-ki, Kim Jong-woo, and Park Jung-je) sentenced Cho, who was detained and indicted on charges of dereliction of duty and violations of the National Intelligence Service Act, to two years and six months in prison along with two years and six months of suspension of qualifications on the 19th.

The special prosecution team led by special counsel Cho Eun-seok had demanded a seven-year prison sentence.

The first trial had previously sentenced him to one year and six months in prison.

The appellate court determined that Cho violated the prohibition on political involvement under the NIS Act by holding a press conference between December 6 and 10, 2024—following the emergency martial law—stating that "the president never gave orders to arrest politicians," and by sending text messages to NIS and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials claiming that "the claims of former First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won are not true."

The court concluded that Cho disseminated these statements while recognizing they were false in order to undermine the credibility of Hong's testimony.

Because Hong's testimony served as a core basis for arguments favoring the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, the court noted that Cho ultimately had a political motive and objective to block the impeachment.

The court pointed out, "The NIS director disseminated false information through an unusual method, such as calling for a press conference on his own, yet failed to provide a convincing background."

However, the court upheld the first trial's not-guilty verdict regarding the charge of violating the NIS Act by providing CCTV footage containing Hong's movements exclusively to the People Power Party while withholding footage of his own movements from the Democratic Party of Korea.

The court noted that Cho was merely responding to a legitimate request for data submission by the National Assembly and that there was no evidence to suggest he discussed submitting the footage with the People Power Party beforehand.

Therefore, it ruled that submitting the CCTV footage could not be viewed as an act of engaging in political activities.

The appellate court also upheld the first trial's not-guilty verdict on another major charge against Cho: dereliction of duty.

This charge stemmed from allegations that Cho failed to report to the National Assembly even after receiving a report from former NIS First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won that former President Yoon Suk Yeol and others mobilized the military during the emergency martial law to blockade the National Assembly and arbitrarily arrest politicians.

The appeal court noted that upon receiving this report from Hong, Cho was aware that the entity attempting to arrest politicians was the Defense Security Command.

However, it judged that simply hearing this information was not enough to conclude that an obligation to report to the National Assembly had arisen.

The court explained, "In addition to the contents of Hong's report, there was a need to verify further information regarding the specific reasons and methods for the arrests," adding, "The crime of dereliction of duty, predicated on a duty to report, is not established."

The first trial had also found him not guilty of this charge on the grounds that it could not be concluded that Cho had been informed by Hong that the Defense Security Command was the entity behind the orders to arrest politicians.

The differing evaluations of Hong's report between the first and second trials also influenced the guilty and not-guilty rulings on other charges.

Unlike the first trial, the appellate court found Cho guilty of perjury (violating the Act on Testimony and Appraisal before the National Assembly) for falsely testifying at a parliamentary investigation special committee inquiry into the martial law allegations in January of last year, stating that he "never received a report from former Deputy Director Hong regarding orders to arrest politicians."

Similarly, the court overturned the first trial's not-guilty verdict and found him guilty of perjury before the Constitutional Court in February of last year.

In addition, the appellate court overturned the first trial and found Cho guilty of several other charges: involvement in deleting secure phone (bihwaphone) data between former President Yoon and Hong containing conversations related to the arrest of politicians (destruction of evidence); denying knowledge of former President Yoon mentioning "extraordinary measures" during a meeting at a safehouse in Samcheong-dong between March and April 2024 when testifying before the Constitutional Court; and denying that he saw the martial law declaration document at the presidential office on the day martial law was declared, or witnessed former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun handing it over to other state council members (perjury charges respectively).

Conversely, the court overturned the first trial's guilty verdict regarding charges that Cho denied receiving martial law-related directive documents from the president or the defense minister during his statements at the Constitutional Court and in written replies sent to the National Assembly (violating the Act on Testimony and Appraisal before the National Assembly and perjury).

Regarding this part of the indictment, the first trial had misinterpreted the "directive documents" related to martial law as "general documents related to martial law," according to the appellate court.

Addressing sentencing, the court reprimanded Cho, stating, "Despite receiving a report regarding the 'arrest orders' on the day of the emergency martial law, the defendant directly participated in political controversy by externally transmitting false information claiming that no such thing happened."

It also pointed out, "The act of a high-ranking public official destroying evidence by abusing his position and authority is heavily culpable, as it significantly undermines the investigative and judicial functions of discovering the substantive truth."

Furthermore, the court rebuked him, saying, "It can by no means be viewed as light, given that it created the risk of obstructing the substantive truth concerning the criminal case and impeachment trial of Yoon Suk Yeol, which has drawn intense national attention."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.