The special counsel team led by independent counsel Cho Eun-seok has demanded a 7-year prison sentence for former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Cho Tae-yong, who was indicted on charges including perjury at the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court regarding the December 3 emergency martial law.

During the sentencing hearing for his appeal held today by Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul High Court (presided over by Judge Yoon Sung-sik), the special counsel team requested the court to hand down the same prison term demanded in the first trial.

The special counsel team pointed out, "The defendant attempted to justify the emergency martial law and conceal the fact that illegal arrest orders were issued."

Accordingly, they requested that all charges ruled not guilty in the original trial be recognized as guilty.

Former Director Cho was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison in the first trial for testifying falsely at the Constitutional Court that he had not received martial law-related documents from former President Yoon Suk Yeol during the December 3 emergency martial law, and for submitting a response to that effect in an official NIS document.

The court determined that former Director Cho received the relevant documents based on Presidential Office closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, thereby finding him guilty of those two charges.

However, the court ruled most of the core charges not guilty.

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

The court stated that it cannot be concluded that former Deputy Director Hong specified the Counterintelligence Command as the subject of the politicians' arrest at the time of the report, or that former Director Cho perceived this as an instruction from the president.

For the same reason, the court also found him not guilty of the charge of giving false testimony at the National Assembly's special committee for the investigation of the truth behind the insurrection charges in January of last year, where he stated, "I have never received a report from former Deputy Director Hong regarding instructions to arrest politicians."

Regarding the charges of providing CCTV footage from the NIS containing the movements of former Deputy Director Hong exclusively to the People Power Party and sending letters containing false information to NIS and Ministry of Foreign Affairs employees stating that he had never received reports related to the arrest of politicians, the court ruled that it was difficult to view former Director Cho as having political intervention intent.

He was also acquitted of charges involving the deletion of secure phone (bihwaphone) data between former President Yoon Suk Yeol and former Deputy Director Hong containing conversations about the arrest of politicians, with the court ruling that it could be seen as a security measure.
 
(Photo: Yonhap News)