South Korean Appeals Court Reduces Former PM Han Duck-soo's Sentence to 15 Years in Martial Law Case
Seoul appeals court cut former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo’s prison term from 23 years to 15 years on May 7, 2026, while upholding most convictions related to ex-President Yoon Suk-yeol’s brief martial law declaration. The presiding judge cited Han’s long public service but said he abandoned his responsibilities. Han, 76, has been imprisoned since January.
Al JazeeraA South Korean appeals court in Seoul reduced former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo’s prison sentence from 23 years to 15 years on Thursday, May 7, 2026. The ruling came eight months after a lower court sentenced the 76-year-old to the longer term in January 2026 for engaging in insurrection as well as related charges of perjury and falsifying an official document.
The appeals court maintained most of Han Duck-soo’s convictions but lessened the penalties.
The court took into account Han Duck-soo’s more than 50 years as a public official prior to the martial law declaration. “The records also make it difficult to find evidence showing that the defendant participated more actively in the insurrection, such as by conspiring in advance or systematically leading the operation,” the presiding judge stated.
However, the judge said Han had “abandoned the grave responsibilities arising from the authority and position entrusted to him and instead sided with those participating in the acts of insurrection”.
Han Duck-soo wore a white shirt and a dark suit with no tie while listening to the verdict in Seoul. He listened without showing much emotion. The former prime minister has been imprisoned since his original sentence in January 2026.
Han Duck-soo denied wrongdoing on all charges except perjury. He stated in November that while he regretted not being able to stop Yoon from declaring martial law, he “never agreed to it or tried to help”. Ex-President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in December 2024.
Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law decree lasted around six hours before opposition lawmakers overturned it in a vote. The short-lived action briefly suspended civilian rule and plunged South Korea into chaos. Han Duck-soo served in senior posts under five presidents.
He became acting president after Yoon Suk-yeol was impeached. The Constitutional Court overturned Han Duck-soo’s impeachment, restoring his powers before he resigned to run in a snap election in June. He ended his bid for the presidency following rifts among conservatives.
Yoon Suk-yeol was handed a life sentence in February on charges of “masterminding an insurrection”. Yoon Suk-yeol, a former career prosecutor, denied the charges and argued he had presidential authority to declare martial law to sound an alarm over opposition obstruction.
Transparency
Rewrite largely neutral but inherits consensus framing portraying martial law as unambiguously chaotic insurrection with selective judicial leniency language.
Loaded metaphor: repeats standard loaded descriptor of the six-hour event across sources
The same facts could be read as an appeals court appropriately tempering an overly harsh initial sentence against a veteran public servant who did not conspire in advance and whose limited actions did not warrant 23 years in prison.
3 independent outlets report the same core facts. This score blends how many outlets corroborate, their editorial tier, and how closely their facts agree — it measures corroboration, not proof.
Sources framed at 65 → our rewrite 35. We stripped 30 points of framing the sources carried in.
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