[Anchor]

Former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae, who is accused of participating in an insurrection, has received a significantly reduced prison sentence in his second trial. Although he was convicted for key acts of participating in the insurrection, other charges were acquitted, lowering his sentence from 25 years to 9 years in prison.

Reporter Im Chanjong has the details.

[Reporter]

The charges applied by the special counsel against former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae are engaging in important duties of an insurrection and abuse of authority.

The charge of engaging in important duties of an insurrection was applied to four directives.

These were the order to have the departure prohibition team stand by after the Dec. 3 emergency martial law, the order to review the detention status at the Seoul Detention Center, the order to review detention capacity at correctional facilities in the metropolitan area, and the order to review the dispatch of personnel to the joint investigation headquarters.

The special counsel also maintained that these directives constituted three counts of abuse of authority against three related public officials.

The first trial previously found him guilty on all counts and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

However, the appellate court found him guilty on only two of the seven indictment charges.

The court ruled that Park had the intent to participate in the insurrection because he was aware that the emergency martial law had been declared for unconstitutional and unlawful purposes.

Consequently, the charges of engaging in important duties of an insurrection were upheld as guilty regarding the orders for the departure prohibition team to stand by and for the review of detention capacity.

[Presiding Judge Yoon Sung-shik, Criminal Division 1, Seoul High Court: It must be recognized that he had the intention to participate while being aware of the circumstance that the declaration of emergency martial law in this case was a means to achieve unconstitutional and unlawful purposes, and thus the purpose of subverting the Constitution must also be recognized.]

However, for the other actions, the court did not recognize the charge of engaging in important duties of an insurrection on the grounds that they were in-principle directives, and also acquitted him of abuse of authority.

As a result, the court sentenced him to 9 years in prison, which is lower than the sentence in the first trial.

This is the same sentence given in the second trial of former Minister Lee Sang-min, who was also indicted on charges of engaging in important duties of an insurrection.

Meanwhile, regarding former Government Legislation Minister Lee Wan-kyu, who was indicted on charges of perjury before the National Assembly, the court overturned the first-trial ruling dismissing the indictment and sent the case back to the Seoul Central District Court.

(Photo: Yonhap News / Video by Yang Hyun-chul)