12·3 Emergency Martial Law, Park Jong-jun, former head of the Presidential Security Service, has been indicted for deleting information from Yoon Suk Yeol's secret phone and has been requested to serve a three-year prison sentence in his appeal, despite being acquitted in the first trial.
On September 15, during the appeal hearing for Park's alleged destruction of evidence, the Special Prosecutor's Office (led by Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok) requested the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 12-2 (Judges Jo Jin-goo, Kim Min-a, and Lee Seung-cheol) to impose a three-year sentence. The court is scheduled to deliver its ruling on October 14 at 2 p.m.
The special prosecutor pointed out, "What the defendant deleted was not ordinary data but secret phone call records that reveal the substance of insurrection crimes. These records were deleted just as the insurrection investigation began, meaning the most crucial evidence disappeared at the most critical time."
Additionally, the prosecutor stated, "The defendant has changed his explanations whenever unfavorable evidence was presented and has consistently sought to minimize his responsibility. It is difficult to see that he sincerely acknowledges his wrongdoing."
In response, Park's attorney argued, "The defendant's actions were not intended to destroy evidence related to the insurrection investigation against Yoon Suk Yeol or to obstruct impeachment proceedings. They were part of his duties to maintain security and protection as the head of the security service."
In his final statement, Park said, "The management regulations for the secret phone, which was developed during the Moon Jae-in administration and first utilized under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, were not established at the time of this incident, and the security service personnel had very low technical understanding. To claim that there was an intent to destroy evidence in the actions taken by the security service at that time is far from the substantive truth."
Previously, Park was indicted on December 6, 2024, for remotely logging out and deleting call records from Yoon and other officials, including Hong Jang-won, former first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service, and Kim Bong-sik, former chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
The first trial acquitted him, stating, "It is difficult to recognize the intent to destroy evidence simply because the measures taken were insufficient or that there were more appropriate methods available in hindsight." The special prosecutor had requested a three-year sentence during the first trial's conclusion.
Meanwhile, Park was sentenced to four years in prison and taken into custody on July 1 for obstructing the execution of a warrant against Yoon by the High-ranking Officials Crime Investigation Agency.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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