SEOUL, Nov. 4 — Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol faces possible invalidation of his 2022 election as an appellate court on Wednesday upheld a suspended prison sentence for election law violations linked to false statements during his presidential campaign.
The Seoul High Court sentenced Yoon to one and a half years in prison, suspended for three years, dismissing his appeal and upholding the lower court’s guilty verdict on all counts of violating the public official election law.
The team of Min Joong-ki, an independent counsel who led an investigation into corruption allegations involving Yoon and his wife, requested the appellate court to uphold the lower court’s ruling.
By law, an elected official’s election is invalidated if they are fined over 1 million won (about 750 U.S. dollars) in the final ruling.
As Yoon is a former president, he will not be stripped of office, but the legal validity of his 2022 presidential election will become null and void retroactively.
If the invalidation becomes final, then ruling and current main opposition People Power Party will have to return about 39.7 billion won in election expenses reimbursed by the national election commission.
Yoon was accused of making false statements as a presidential candidate during the January 2022 forum interview that neither he nor his wife had ever met a Shamanist broker Jeon Seong-bae.
He was also charged with falsely claiming during the December 2021 debate that he never introduced a lawyer to a former district tax chief who was under investigation for bribery.
The appellate court deemed the statements to be the dissemination of false information.
Yoon was sentenced to life in prison in February for the insurrection stemming from his martial law declaration and 30 years in prison in June for the general treason relevant to the infiltration of drones into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The emergency martial law was declared by Yoon on the night of Dec. 3, 2024, but it was revoked hours later by the National Assembly.
He was indicted under detention in January 2025 as a suspected ringleader of the insurrection, becoming the first sitting president to be arrested and indicted. (Namibia Daily News/Xinhua)
