Seoul:An appellate court has overturned the acquittal of Park Jong-joon, the former chief of the Presidential Security Service (PSS), who was accused of deleting secure phone data related to ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol and other officials following a martial law declaration by Yoon in 2024.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Seoul High Court sentenced Park to one year in prison for evidence destruction. This decision reverses a previous ruling that had found him not guilty of these charges.

Park faced indictment in December of the previous year for allegedly deleting data from secure phones used by Yoon, a former National Intelligence Service official, Hong Jang-won, and Kim Bong-sik, the former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. The deletions were carried out using a remote logout function following the declaration of martial law in December 2024.

Special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team had sought a three-year prison sentence for Park. The appellate court highlighted that Park's actions indicated an intent to destroy evidence when he erased data from the secure phones of Yoon, Hong, and Kim.

In a separate case, Park remains in detention after being sentenced to four years in prison for obstructing the execution of a warrant intended to detain Yoon in January 2025. An appellate court ruling regarding this separate case is anticipated on October 28.