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Court allows live broadcast of ex-President Yoon's appellate trial on obstruction of justice

Published: 03 Mar. 2026, 17:02

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a sentencing hearing at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Feb. 19. [SEOUL CENTRAL DISTRICT COURT/YONHAP]

A court said Tuesday it will allow live broadcasts of former President Yoon Suk Yeol's appellate trial on obstruction of justice and other charges.

The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 1, which was recently assigned the insurrection case and related cases, said all the trial's hearings, starting with Wednesday's first hearing, can be broadcast from beginning to end.

Exceptions can be made for reasons of national security, maintaining order or public interest, it added. The broadcasts had been requested by special counsel Cho Eun-seok's team, which investigated allegations surrounding Yoon's failed imposition of martial law in December 2024.

The former president has been sentenced by a lower court to five years in prison on charges of obstructing investigators' attempt to detain him last year following the martial law declaration.

He was also found guilty of violating the rights of Cabinet members who were not called to a meeting to review his martial law plan, and drafting and later destroying a revised proclamation after the decree was lifted.

Yoon is standing a total of eight trials in connection with the martial law bid, his alleged corruption by his wife, Kim Keon Hee, and the 2023 death of a Marine.

In one of them, he was sentenced to life imprisonment last month for leading an insurrection through his declaration of martial law.

Yonhap