(3rd LD) Special counsel seeks 10-year prison term for ex-President Yoon in obstruction of justice appeals trial

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

(3rd LD) ex-president-trial

(3rd LD) Special counsel seeks 10-year prison term for ex-President Yoon in obstruction of justice appeals trial

(ATTN: UPDATES sentencing date in 7th para; TRIMS)

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- A special counsel team on Monday 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.

Special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team sought the sentence at the final hearing at the Seoul High Court, double the five-year term handed down by a lower court in January.

Yoon was convicted by the lower court of obstructing investigators from detaining him last year and calling only select Cabinet members to a meeting to review his martial law plan.

He was also 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.

"The nature of the crime is bad as he abused his position as president to destroy the constitutional order and privatized state power," a special counsel team member said, referring to Yoon's alleged orders to the Presidential Security Service to block his detention.

"Since the first ruling, he has had an opportunity to apologize to the people, but he continues to claim his innocence by consistently making excuses."

The appeals court is set to deliver its ruling on April 29.

Yoon 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.

In the main case, a court sentenced him in February to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection through his declaration of martial law.

Yoon has been jailed since July pending the trials.

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