▲ Former President Yoon Suk Yeol (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

ex-president-trial

Supreme Court set to rule on ex-President Yoon's obstruction of justice charges

SEOUL, July 9 (Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court was set to deliver its verdict Thursday on charges that former President Yoon Suk Yeol obstructed justice by blocking investigators from detaining him in the wake of his failed martial law bid in 2024.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled to be held at 2 p.m. in what will be the top court's first ruling for Yoon. The ousted former president has been standing a total of eight trials in connection with his surprise declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.

Yoon does not plan to appear for the session as the defendant's attendance is not required for a final appeal ruling. The hearing will be broadcast live.

The former president, who has been in custody since last July, is accused of having ordered presidential bodyguards to stop investigators from executing a warrant to detain him in January 2025.

He is also charged with violating the rights of nine Cabinet members by not calling them to an advance meeting to review his martial law plan, as well as falsifying public documents by revising the martial law proclamation after the decree was lifted in order to disguise its procedural flaws and later discarding the document.

An appeals court sentenced Yoon to seven years in prison in April after finding him guilty of the charges, an increase of two years from the lower court's ruling but less than the 10 years recommended by a special counsel team.

Yoon's main trial on charges of leading an insurrection through the martial law bid is ongoing at an appellate court. In the first ruling, he was sentenced to life in prison.

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