Yoon's defense team breaks down after 30-year sentence: 'The special probe itself is treason'

Yoon convicted of aiding the enemy, sentenced to 30 years; defense team issues statement immediately after ruling

A prison transport vehicle carrying former President Yoon Suk Yeol enters Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on Friday, where a first-instance sentencing hearing was held in the case of Yoon and others indicted on charges of ordering drone operations over Pyongyang to manufacture a pretext for the Dec. 3 emergency martial law declaration. [Yonhap]

Moments after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges including aiding the enemy, his defense team declared that "the special prosecutor's investigation, indictment and trial are themselves acts of treason."

In a statement issued Friday, the defense team said the military's use of drones to drop anti-North Korea leaflets was "a legitimate military operation in response to North Korea's attacks using 7,000 trash balloons," adding that "the special prosecutor's reckless investigation and indictment — labeling this as aiding the enemy — seriously undermines national security."

The statement said the trash balloon attacks had caused direct harm to the lives and property of South Korean citizens and raised "serious concerns about terrorism and mass casualties" at key national facilities, including the National Assembly, airports, the presidential office and foreign embassies.

"Criminalizing a military response taken to defend the nation, and ruling that our military's operations against North Korea's continued provocations constitute aiding the enemy, is a betrayal of South Korea's security realities and the state's fundamental duty to protect its liberal democratic order," the statement said.

The team said the indictment and Friday's ruling "will be recorded as events that inflicted grave damage on South Korea's security capabilities and its fundamental liberal democratic order," adding that "responsibility and judgment will ultimately be rendered before the stern verdict of history."

The statement also warned that the special prosecutor's investigation was eroding not only the military chain of command but "the very essence of the military — the principle of following orders." It added that if soldiers feared legal liability for carrying out a superior's orders when facing an enemy threat, "deterrence against war or enemy provocations would become impossible, posing a grave security risk."

At a press conference immediately after sentencing, members of the defense team said they were "overcome with devastation and despair" and called on the public to "wake up" and not "stand by while the judiciary runs amok." Attorney Kim Gye-ri, visibly in tears, said she had "never once thought a guilty verdict would come," and questioned: "The Lee Jae-myung government has dissolved the Defense Counterintelligence Command — so who exactly is aiding the enemy?"

The defense team for former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun called the ruling "an unfortunate verdict for a country that ties the military's hands while telling it to defend the nation under a truce," adding that the only beneficiary of the decision was the Kim Jong-un regime. "We will appeal and fight to the end against this wrong ruling, so that our military can carry out its mission without looking over its shoulder," the team said.

Meanwhile, the court on Friday sentenced former President Yoon to 30 years in prison at the first-instance trial on charges that he ordered drone operations over Pyongyang to manufacture a pretext for the Dec. 3 emergency martial law declaration. Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, tried in the same case, also received 30 years, while former Defense Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyeong was sentenced to 15 years. Former Drone Operations Command chief Kim Yong-dae, who directed the actual execution of the operation, received a three-year sentence suspended for five years.

notstrong@heraldcorp.com