Supreme Court to rule on ex-President Yoon's obstruction of justice charges on July 9

The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict next week on charges that former President Yoon Suk Yeol obstructed justice by blocking investigators from detaining him in the wake of his failed martial law bid in 2024, legal sources said Thursday.

The sentencing hearing will be held at 2 p.m. next Thursday, marking the top court's first ruling for Yoon over charges stemming from his surprise declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.

The jailed former president is accused of having ordered his bodyguards to stop investigators from executing a warrant to detain him in January 2025.

He is also charged with violating the rights of nine Cabinet members by not calling them to an advance meeting to review his martial law plan, falsifying public documents by revising the martial law proclamation after the decree was lifted in order to disguise its procedural flaws and later discarding the document.

An appeals court sentenced Yoon to seven years in prison in April after finding him guilty of the charges, an increase of two years from the lower court's ruling but less than the 10 years recommended by a special counsel team.

Yoon's main trial on charges of leading an insurrection through the martial law bid is ongoing at an appellate court. In the first ruling, he was sentenced to life in prison.

Yonhap