For former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who declared and led the Dec. 3 illegal martial law, Special Counsel Cho Eun-seok’s team on insurrection requested that the court impose the death penalty, the statutory maximum for the crime of being the ringleader of insurrection. It is the first time since Chun Doo-hwan in 1996 that the death penalty has been sought against a former president on insurrection charges. Analysts say that requesting a punishment widely criticized as infringing human dignity under the rule of law reflects the seriousness of the offenses.

According to reporting by The Kyunghyang Shinmun on the 14th, at Yoon’s sentencing hearing the previous day before the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 25 (Presiding Judge Ji Gwi-yeon), Deputy Special Counsel Park Eok-su emphasized the gravity of what occurred during and after the declaration of martial law. Park said, “For crimes that harm the existence and welfare of the social community, we have responded with the most severe punishment,” and added, “Defendant Yoon Suk Yeol has shown no sincere reflection or sense of responsibility, and is calling the declaration and execution of emergency martial law driven by a lust for power for dictatorship and long-term rule a defense of liberal democracy.”

At the same time, although Korea does not carry out executions and is in effect a ‘de facto abolitionist country,’ he viewed a death sentence as highly meaningful. Park explained, “In the criminal justice of the Republic of Korea, ‘death penalty’ does not mean it is carried out to put someone to death, but functions as a way for the community, through trial, to embody its will to respond to crime and the trust in that response.” He added, “For the offense of being the ringleader of insurrection, the statutory penalty ranges from a maximum of death to a minimum of life imprisonment. We must carefully consider whether it is appropriate to set the sentence at the statutory minimum of life for a defendant who has absolutely no mitigating circumstances worth considering.”

They argue that, while there is no expectation that an execution would actually be carried out, they sought the death penalty for its symbolic meaning of condemnation. The special counsel repeatedly compared the case to former presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, who implemented the expansion of emergency martial law on May 17, 1980, and said stern punishment is needed to prevent recurrence. Chun, who produced countless victims in the Dec. 12 military coup and the May 18 pro-democracy movement cases, was sentenced to death at the first trial in 1996 on insurrection and other charges, but the sentence was reduced to life on appeal and finalized. He was then specially pardoned by President Kim Young-sam eight months later and released after about two years.

Referring to this, the special counsel said, “Even though there is a history of condemning the Chun and Roh camp, this time defendant Yoon Suk Yeol and other ‘public office elites’ plotted insurrection using emergency martial law as a tool,” and added, “Our people have come to feel again that a condemnation even sterner than that of Chun is necessary so that tragedy does not repeat.” This reasoning was also applied to former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min, who have been indicted for engaging in important duties in the insurrection and are awaiting sentencing.

The special counsel said the principle of overall responsibility should be applied even to defendants who only partly participated at the time of martial law. “The crime of insurrection is a collective offense in which many act together to undermine the existence of the state and the constitutional order,” it said, “and even if the defendants did not directly take part in every riotous act that occurred in this case, they must be seen as bearing criminal responsibility for the whole.”

For the military and police leadership, the team presented different sentencing opinions according to degree of involvement and gravity. For former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who assisted Yoon and played a leading role in planning and executing the declaration of martial law, it sought life imprisonment. Prosecutor Jang Jun-ho of the special counsel team said, “From conspiracy to the execution stage of the insurrection, Kim Yong-hyun moved as one with Yoon Suk Yeol, and even after the investigation began, he has maintained the same stance as Yoon,” and pointed out, “He was not a mere participant but someone who controlled and dominated the entirety of the crimes, occupying a position no different from the ringleader.”

Regarding Noh Sang-won, former commander of the Defense Intelligence Command, who as a civilian helped Kim plan and carry out the martial law, the team said he was “not a simple subordinate participant but a planner and architect involved from the core conception stage of the crimes,” and asked the court to impose a heavy sentence of 30 years in prison.

For Cho Ji-ho, former commissioner general of the National Police Agency, who as police chief at the time of martial law deployed thousands of officers and police buses to the National Assembly to block lawmakers and citizens from entering, the team sought a relatively lower sentence of 20 years. Although it was wrong that, despite knowing the illegality of martial law, he blindly followed orders from above as a public official, they judged he was not a principal instigator of the martial law but an ‘important-duty participant.’

The court will open the sentencing session for them at 3 p.m. on the 19th of next month.