Former President Yoon Suk-yeol listens to the reasons for the judgment at the first-instance sentencing hearing on January 19 at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, in a case on charges of being a ringleader of insurrection. On that day, the court sentenced the former president to life imprisonment. Provided by the Seoul Central District Court

“Order. The defendant Yoon Suk-yeol is sentenced to 30 years in prison.”

On the 12th, former President Yoon Suk-yeol was again handed a heavy sentence in Criminal Grand Courtroom 417 at the Seoul Central District Court, where about five months earlier he had been sentenced to life imprisonment. Wearing a blank expression, he moved his head from side to side, then soon nodded toward his attorneys and left the courtroom.

Criminal Division 33 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jeong-yeop) spent about 30 minutes from 10:30 a.m. explaining the gist of the first-instance verdicts in the cases of former President Yoon, former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, former Defense Counterintelligence Command commander Yeo In-hyeong, and former Drone Operations Command commander Kim Yong-dae, on charges including general aiding the enemy and abuse of authority obstructing the exercise of rights.

All four defendants, including the former president, listened with grim faces as the bench explained. Former commander Yeo shut his eyes tight when references were made to determinations that a memo on his mobile phone constituted ‘evidence of premeditating martial law’, and at times spoke with the defense counsel seated next to him. Former commander Kim covered his face with both hands and could not lift his head.

Immediately after the ruling ended, the defense team for the former president left the courtroom looking agitated. Attorney Kim Gye-ri, who calls the former president ‘Yoonbeoji’ and who said during the impeachment proceedings, “I was enlightened by the former president declaring martial law,” shed tears as she exited the courtroom.

At a press conference held in front of the court the same day, Attorney Kim also choked up, saying, “While preparing this case, I never once thought a guilty verdict would be handed down.” She went on, “The special prosecutor could not dare to pin on the president the crime of ‘colluding with the enemy’, and that is why the general aiding-the-enemy charge was created,” and argued, “The special counsel turned acts of governance by the president into the crime of aiding the enemy.” Attorney Song Jin-ho added, “I have no way to contain how devastated and miserable I feel,” and said, “If the judiciary continues to fabricate forced logic to keep up sedition-baiting and enemy-baiting, future generations will surely pay the price.”