Overview
- Seoul Central District Court sentenced Han Duck-soo to 23 years and ordered his immediate detention, citing concerns he could destroy evidence.
- The court said Han was instrumental in staging a cabinet meeting that enabled the decree and described the episode as a top-down plot it will refer to as the '12.3 insurrection'.
- Judges found Han guilty of signing and later discarding a revised proclamation to retroactively legitimize the decree and of perjury before the Constitutional Court.
- The 23-year term exceeded the 15-year request from special prosecutors and marked the first sentencing of a former Yoon cabinet member in the martial law cases.
- The decision is expected to shape the Feb. 19 verdict in Yoon Suk Yeol’s insurrection trial, after his separate five-year sentence last week, while Han maintains he had no prior knowledge of the plans.