Public can apply to attend Yoon's Supreme Court sentencing in arrest obstruction case

The Supreme Court is accepting public applications to attend the final appeal sentencing for former President Yoon Suk Yeol in a case involving his obstruction of an arrest by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.

The Supreme Court announced Thursday on its website that it would accept online applications for public gallery passes "to maintain courtroom order and ensure smooth entry." Those wishing to attend may submit an application form to the court's email address through 6 p.m. Tuesday.

The court will hold a lottery Wednesday and notify winners individually by text message by 6 p.m. that day. Courtroom No. 1, where the sentencing will take place, has 48 general seats, two seats for disabled visitors and two seats for disability support assistants. Additional seats may be allocated in Courtroom No. 2, which is equipped for video relay, depending on circumstances.

Separately, the special prosecutor's team led by Cho Eun-seok asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow a live broadcast of the sentencing. If granted, it would mark the first time a ruling by a small bench — rather than the full Grand Bench — has ever been broadcast.

The Supreme Court's Third Division, presided over by Justice Lee Suk-yeon, is scheduled to deliver its ruling at 2 p.m. Wednesday on charges against Yoon including obstruction of special official duties and abuse of authority. It will be the first Supreme Court ruling on Yoon, coming roughly one year and seven months — 583 days — after the Dec. 3 emergency martial law crisis.

Yoon was indicted last July by the special prosecutor's team on charges of mobilizing Presidential Security Service personnel in January last year to block the CIO from executing an arrest warrant against him.

He also faces charges of violating the deliberation rights of nine Cabinet members who were unable to attend a Cabinet meeting convened before the martial law declaration — a meeting the prosecution alleges was assembled with only some ministers present to create the mere appearance of a proper Cabinet session.

Additional charges include fabricating a false martial law proclamation document made to appear as though it had been countersigned by then-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and then-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, and subsequently destroying it.

The Seoul High Court's criminal division handling insurrection cases handed down a seven-year prison sentence at the second trial in April, two years more than the five-year term imposed at the first trial but below the 10-year sentence sought by the special prosecutor's team.