SEOUL, July 9 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's top court on Thursday finalized a seven-year prison sentence for former President Yoon Suk-yeol over obstruction of arrest, live footage showed.
The Supreme Court delivered its final verdict on Yoon, saying the lower court committed no error in its application of legal principles.
It marked the top court's first ruling on Yoon since the ousted leader's martial law declaration in December 2024.
On April 29 this year, the Seoul High Court overturned a lower court's ruling over Yoon's obstruction of arrest, lengthening his prison term from five to seven years.
The team of Cho Eun-suk, an independent counsel who led investigations into Yoon's insurrection and other charges, had sought a 10-year prison sentence in the first and second instances.
Yoon was charged with abusing the presidential security service to hinder the anti-corruption agency from executing its arrest warrant in January 2025.
The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) was once thwarted in its attempt to arrest Yoon when the presidential security service formed human shields and bus blockades to prevent investigators from entering the presidential residence.
Yoon was also accused of abusing his power to block nine cabinet members from exercising their rights to deliberate on the martial law declaration by calling a selective cabinet meeting before the declaration.
He faced charges of creating and later destroying a fabricated declaration document to make the declaration appear legal after the martial law was lifted, while ordering the dissemination of a press guidance containing a false claim that there was no intention to disrupt the constitutional order through the martial law.
The emergency martial law was declared by Yoon on the night of Dec. 3, 2024, but was revoked hours later by the National Assembly.
He was indicted under detention in January 2025 as a suspected ringleader of the insurrection, becoming the first sitting president to be arrested and indicted. ■
