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Seoul appeals court cuts former justice minister Park Sung-jae's martial law sentence to nine years
The Seoul High Court upheld Park's conviction for taking part in Yoon Suk Yeol's December 2024 martial law bid but reduced his 25-year term from the first trial.
Key points
- Former South Korean justice minister Park Sung-jae was sentenced to nine years in prison on appeal.
- A lower court had given him 25 years for taking part in the December 2024 insurrection.
- The court found he had not easily been shown to have planned martial law in advance with Yoon.
A South Korean appeals court on Wednesday cut the prison sentence of former justice minister Park Sung-jae, convicted of taking part in former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law, from 25 years to nine.
The Seoul High Court’s Criminal Division 1, a panel set up to hear insurrection cases and led by Judge Yoon Seong-sik, upheld Park’s conviction for participating in an insurrection over the events of 3 December 2024. But it took a narrower view of his role than the Seoul Central District Court, which had handed him a term heavier than the 20 years prosecutors had sought.
The appeal judges said it was not easy to see Park as having arranged the martial law plan in advance with Yoon and his then defence minister Kim Yong-hyun. They described the instructions he gave to the immigration service and the corrections headquarters that night as preparatory acts. They still found that he had intended to join the insurrection, pointing to his early arrival at the presidential office as one of the so-called “8 a.m. members”.
In a related ruling, the court reversed the dismissal of a perjury indictment against Lee Wan-kyu, the former head of the Ministry of Government Legislation, who had described a December 2024 meeting at a safe house in Samcheong-dong as a social gathering. The lower court had thrown out the charge as outside the special counsel’s mandate. The appeal court disagreed and sent the case back for a fresh trial.
Park can appeal to the Supreme Court. The martial law cases continue to dominate South Korean politics under President Lee Jae-myung, who replaced Yoon after his removal from office.