▲ In this file photo, former National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong arrives at a special counsel's office in southern Seoul on Nov. 18, 2025, to undergo questioning in connection with the alleged cover-up of a Marine's death in 2023. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, July 27 (Yonhap) -- A special counsel team on Monday requested a seven-year prison term for former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Cho Tae-yong in his appellate trial on charges of giving false testimony about former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed imposition of martial law.

Special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team requested the sentence at the trial at the Seoul High Court, which also involves charges of dereliction of duty for not reporting Yoon's order to arrest politicians to the National Assembly, drafting and using false public documents, and destruction of evidence.

The alleged events all took place around the time of Yoon's declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.

The special counsel team had made the same sentencing recommendation during Cho's initial trial, but the lower court sentenced him to 1 1/2 years in prison after convicting him of perjury for telling the Constitutional Court that he had not received martial law-related documents from Yoon at the time of its declaration, and of making similar claims in official NIS documents.

The lower court acquitted him of all other charges, including dereliction of duty and destruction of evidence.

On Monday, the special counsel team again argued for a heavier sentence, saying Cho tried to justify the martial law declaration and attempted to conceal Yoon's instruction to arrest key politicians.

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