A South Korean court sentenced a former justice minister to 25 years in prison on Monday for his role in ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief and disastrous declaration of martial law in 2024.

Park Sung-jae was found guilty of involvement in “insurrection” by the Seoul Central District Court, according to a recording of the verdict shared online.

Yoon’s late-night martial law declaration in December 2024 lasted only about six hours as lawmakers raced to the assembly building and voted it down in an emergency session.

He has since been convicted of leading an insurrection and is in detention while appealing against a life sentence.

Yoon was also given a 30-year jail term this month for sending drones to North Korea to “manufacture a national crisis” to justify his martial law declaration.

Park held a meeting of justice ministry officials in the early hours after the martial law declaration and checked on prison capacity should the authorities arrest anti-government figures, prosecutors said.

“Due to the actions of the defendant, the country nearly faced a situation in which the people’s fundamental rights and the basic order of liberal democracy could have been violated,” presiding judge Lee Jin-gwan said on Monday.

As justice minister, Park “ignored the various opinions that had been raised at the meeting regarding the illegality of the Dec 3 insurrection”, Lee said.

‘Abuse Of Power’

Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence for Park, arguing that he had “reduced the law to a tool of insurrection in his abuse of power and posed a challenge to the rule of law”.

Park, who had been standing trial without detention, was taken into custody following the ruling.

Yoon’s shock late-night national televised address plunged South Korea into an unprecedented political crisis.

It triggered protests, sent the stock market plunging, and caught key allies such as the United States off guard.

A circle of Yoon’s subordinates has been given hefty sentences.

Former prime minister Han Duck-soo, who once toyed with a presidential run, is serving a 15-year prison sentence, and former interior minister Lee Sang-min was jailed for nine years.

Former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun was sentenced to three years in prison last week for revealing classified military information in furtherance of the insurrection.

Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, is also serving a four-year term for stock manipulation and bribery unrelated to the martial law fiasco.

AFP

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