Seoul: The Supreme Court has confirmed a seven-year prison sentence for former President Yoon Suk Yeol, ruling on Thursday that he obstructed justice by preventing investigators from detaining him following his unsuccessful attempt to impose martial law in 2024.

According to Yonhap News Agency, this marks the first ruling against Yoon by the top court, as he faces a total of eight trials connected to his unexpected martial law declaration on December 3, 2024. These trials also involve allegations of his wife's corruption and a supposed cover-up of a Marine's death. The primary trial concerning charges of leading an insurrection through the martial law attempt is ongoing in an appellate court, following a lower court's life imprisonment sentence.

In Thursday's trial, Yoon was also charged with abuse of power, falsifying public documents, among other offenses. The presiding judge stated that the lower court's judgment was free of errors such as misapplying legal principles or violating logic in the evaluation of evidence.

The hearing proceeded live despite Yoon's objections and his absence, as a final appeal ruling does not necessitate the defendant's presence. Nonetheless, Yoon watched the broadcast on a cellphone while attending his insurrection appellate trial at the nearby Seoul High Court, giving a wry smile when the verdict was announced.

Yoon has been detained since July of the previous year, accused of ordering his bodyguards to hinder investigators from executing a detention warrant in January 2025. He allegedly violated the rights of nine Cabinet members by not convening an advance meeting to discuss his martial law plan.

Additional charges included altering the martial law proclamation to conceal procedural flaws after lifting the decree, using the document and subsequently discarding it, distributing a press statement with false information, and limiting access to a former military commander's phone records. The Supreme Court upheld all these charges except the use of the false proclamation.

An appeals court had increased Yoon's sentence to seven years in April, up from a district court's ruling but less than the 10 years suggested by a special counsel team. Following the Supreme Court's decision, Yoon's lawyers announced their intention to challenge its constitutionality.