The leader of the rebellion will be sentenced within the year at the second trial... Argument closed on November 5th

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Young-seop = The appeal trial ruling on former President Yoon Seok-yeol's charge of being the leader of the rebellion will be handed down as early as this year.

Criminal Division 12-1 (Judges Lee Seung-cheol, Cho Jin-gu, and Kim Min-ah), the Seoul High Court's insurrection court, said at the trial on the case of former President Yoon being accused of being the leader of the insurrection on the 15th, "I think we will be able to complete the statement of final opinion around November 5th."

Specifically, they said they plan to complete the examination of the defendant by the trial on the 27th of this month and begin the decision-making process from the trial on the 29th.

This means that over three trials, on the 29th of this month, the 3rd of next month, and the 5th of next month, the final argument of Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok and the final argument and final statements of the defendants, including Koo Hyung and former President Yoon, will be completed and a sentencing date will be set.

Previously, the first trial court set the sentencing date to be about a month after the end of arguments.

Accordingly, it is expected that the second trial will be handed down as early as this year.

In fact, if the argument ends on the 5th of next month, this case will be heard for 8 months after it was submitted to the Seoul High Court on March 4th.

Accordingly, the so-called '6·3·3 principle' under the Special Prosecutor's Act, which requires special prosecution cases to be handled within 6 months for the first trial, 3 months for the 2nd trial, and 3 months for the 3rd trial, could not be observed.

However, since this is not a mandatory regulation, the special prosecution team or the court will not be subject to separate sanctions for exceeding the deadline.

Former President Yoon was arrested and indicted in January last year on charges of conspiring with former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun and others to declare martial law on December 3 and cause a riot aimed at disrupting the national constitution.

Last February, the first trial found former President Yoon guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment, saying that his actions of sending the military to the National Assembly met the requirements of the crime of treason, which was 'for the purpose of disturbing the Constitution' and 'riot'.

This is a lower sentence than the death penalty sought by the special prosecution team.

It was the second time in constitutional history that the highest authority figure suspected of rebellion had been condemned, following former President Chun Doo-hwan.

Former President Yoon's side has maintained his innocence, saying that he only declared so-called 'martial law as a message' to raise awareness of the crisis of constitutional destruction caused by the chaos in government affairs and the tyranny of the opposition party.