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Prosecutors seek 10-year term for ex-President Yoon in obstruction of justice appeal
South Korean prosecutors have demanded a 10-year prison term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol in his obstruction of justice appeal, double his original sentence. The request stems from his 2024 martial law declaration; separately, prosecutors sought 20 years for former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae and two years for Yoon on perjury charges.
South Korean prosecutors have demanded a 10-year prison term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol in the appeals trial of his obstruction of justice case, which stems from his December 2024 declaration of martial law. The request, made Monday, doubles the five-year sentence handed down by a lower court in January.
The demand comes amid multiple legal proceedings against the former president, who was separately sentenced to life imprisonment in February for leading an insurrection through his martial law declaration. According to multiple reports, Yoon has been jailed since July pending trials across eight separate cases.
Coverage Comparison
The request was reported by Yonhap News Agency, which covered the sentencing demand in several articles. The stories consistently note that special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team sought the sentence at a hearing at the Seoul High Court. Reports highlight that the lower court had convicted Yoon of obstructing investigators who attempted to detain him and of convening a meeting with only select Cabinet members to review his martial law plan.
Key Claims
The special counsel team demanded a 10-year prison term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol for obstruction of justice.
Yoon was convicted of obstructing investigators and calling only select Cabinet members to a meeting to review his martial law plan.
A lower court found Yoon guilty of creating and discarding a false proclamation after the martial law decree was lifted.
Yoon faced a separate perjury charge; prosecutors sought a two-year term for giving false testimony during former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's insurrection trial.
Prosecutors sought a 20-year sentence for former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae for his alleged role in the martial law bid.
Perspectives
The prosecution's case, as outlined in court, portrays Yoon as having "abused his position as president to destroy the constitutional order and privatized state power," according to a special counsel team member. The same official noted that Yoon has had the opportunity to apologize but has continued to claim innocence, calling his actions "excuses."
In the perjury case, a prosecutor stated that Yoon "actively gave false testimony during a trial watched by the entire nation," though no statements from his defense were available in these reports.
The special counsel also sought a three-year term for former Minister of Government Legislation Lee Wan-kyu on charges of giving false testimony to the National Assembly about discussions of the martial law decree.
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Yonhap News — English
Framing:Our reading Former President Yoon Suk Yeol faces 10-year prison term demand — Neutral
Facts Included:
Special counsel team demands 10-year prison term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol
Yoon was convicted of obstructing investigators and calling only select Cabinet members to a meeting
Yoon was found guilty of creating and discarding a false proclamation
Yoon has been standing a total of eight trials in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law
AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimA special counsel team demanded a 10-year prison term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol during the appeals trial of his obstruction of justice case stemming from his 2024 imposition of martial law.
ClaimYoon was convicted of obstructing investigators from detaining him last year and calling only select Cabinet members to a meeting to review his martial law plan.
ClaimYoon was found guilty of creating and then discarding a false proclamation after the martial law decree was lifted but acquitted of charges that he ordered the distribution of false press statements.
ClaimYoon has been standing a total of eight trials in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024, his wife's alleged corruption and the 2023 death of a Marine.
ClaimA special counsel team sought a 20-year prison term for former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae on charges of playing a key role in former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law bid and granting undue favors to Yoon's wife.
ClaimPark is accused of playing a key role in an insurrection and abusing his power by calling a meeting of senior justice ministry officials in the wake of Yoon's December 2024 martial law declaration.
ClaimA special counsel team requested a three-year prison term for former Minister of Government Legislation Lee Wan-kyu on charges of giving false testimony to the National Assembly.
ClaimA special counsel team sought a two-year prison term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of giving false testimony during former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's insurrection trial.