The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a seven-year prison term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol for obstructing justice by blocking investigators from detaining him after his 2024 martial law declaration.
The Supreme Court in Seoul ruled that the lower court's judgment contained no errors in its assessment of evidence or legal principles. Yoon was accused of ordering presidential bodyguards to stop investigators from executing a warrant to detain him at the presidential residence in January 2025.
This marks the top court's first ruling in any of Yoon's eight ongoing trials linked to his December 3, 2024, martial law declaration. An appeals court had sentenced him to seven years in April, up two years from the district court's decision.
Yoon's lawyers vowed immediately after the ruling to challenge its constitutionality. The former president, in custody since last July, watched the live broadcast on a cellphone while attending his separate insurrection trial at the nearby Seoul High Court.
