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Decide Lee Jin-gwan reads the court docket’s verdict within the trial of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on costs of performing important duties in companies of an riot on Jan. 21, 2026, on the Seoul Central District Courtroom. (courtesy of the Seoul Central District Courtroom)
The court docket’s unconventional determination to transcend the 15-year sentence requested by prosecutors and sentence former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to 23 years in jail was primarily based on its judgment that the declaration of martial regulation on Dec. 3, 2024, posed a considerably larger hazard as an “riot from the highest.”
Decide Lee Jin-gwan of the Seoul Central District Courtroom, the presiding decide in Han’s preliminary trial, had garnered consideration for his agency demeanor all through the trial course of, and his attribute resolve seems to have been mirrored within the court docket’s sentencing.
“The Dec. 3 riot was carried out by former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was chosen by the folks to steer the nation, and his followers. This amounted to an riot from the highest, or what is called a self-coup,” Lee stated as he defined how the court docket decided the size of Han’s sentence.
“The hazards that insurrections from the highest pose are incomparable to people who come up from beneath,” the court docket dominated. “Above all, a publicly elected chief carried out acts of riot in full disregard for the Structure and the nation’s legal guidelines, thereby undermining the general public’s basic perception in democracy and the rule of regulation.”
The 23-year jail sentence handed to Han additionally mirrored the court docket’s resolve to throw the ebook on the radical forces that the Dec. 3 self-coup acted as a name to arms for. The storming of Seoul Western District Courtroom following the issuance of Yoon’s arrest warrant was additionally talked about through the sentencing.
“We’re surrounded by those that imagine that the fitting to withstand, which is reserved for exigent circumstances, might be wielded irresponsibly, those that declare that the declaration of martial regulation was made to ‘enlighten’ or to ‘warn,’ and people, just like the perpetrators of the riot at Seoul Western District Courtroom, who imagine that it’s only pure to violate the Structure and legal guidelines and trigger dangerous conditions for the sake of their political positions,” stated Lee. “The Dec. 3 riot engendered and propagated this sort of deleterious considering.”
At one level through the studying of the decision, as he addressed Han’s declare that martial regulation was lifted in six hours and brought about no casualties, Lee gave the impression to be overcome with emotion, noting that the riot solely got here to a swift finish “due to the Koreans who confronted martial regulation forces.”
“The riot met an abrupt finish because of the braveness and resistance of the individuals who protected the Nationwide Meeting by standing as much as martial regulation troops, not these chargeable for the riot,” Lee stated.
The decide turned identified for his no-nonsense demeanor all through Han’s trial, demonstrated by his immediate issuance of bench warrants for Cupboard members who failed to seem in court docket as witnesses and ordering confinement of Protection Minister Kim Yong-hyun’s authorized group for disrupting court docket proceedings.
That perspective of zero-tolerance appears to have been mirrored within the court docket’s dedication to condemn Han to 23 years in jail — six years greater than Roh Tae-woo, a former president of South Korea who was sentenced to 17 years in jail for his function in a army coup.
“The circumstances of earlier riot makes an attempt and the Dec. 3 riot are totally different. Earlier Supreme Courtroom rulings on riot can not function a benchmark for figuring out the extent of punishment for individuals within the Dec. 3 riot,” Lee stated bluntly.
The sentence sought by particular counsel Cho Eun-seok and his group for Han was 15 years, however the court docket departed from that by eight years.
Han’s authorized group pleaded for leniency, citing Han’s clear legal report from his 50 years in public workplace, his outdated age, gentle cognitive impairment, and the truth that he’s receiving therapy for melancholy, however the court docket dominated that the gravity of the offense demanded a stiff sentence, saying that Han’s duty for creating “social conflicts tough to treatment” outweighed his private circumstances.
The court docket additionally reprimanded Han for his lack of honest contrition, noting that Han initially denied all allegations throughout preliminary hearings, solely to apologize when CCTV footage of the presidential workplace through the martial regulation declaration was revealed later in court docket.
By Oh Yeon-seo, workers reporter
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
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