[Former South Korean Minister of Justice Park Seung-jae was sentenced to 9 years in prison in the second instance] On October 21, the Seoul High Court in South Korea made a second-instance judgment on the 21st on former Justice Minister Park Seung-jae’s alleged involvement in civil strife and sentenced him to 9 years in prison. Previously, the court of first instance sentenced Park Seung-jae to 25 years in prison. The special prosecution team responsible for investigating the case also requested in the second instance that the original sentence of 25 years in prison be maintained. The Seoul High Court found that the emergency martial law did not meet the substantive and procedural legal conditions, and Park Sung-jae also knew that the martial law order was unconstitutional and illegal. The Seoul High Court pointed out that after the declaration of martial law, Park Seung-jae instructed the head of the Immigration and Foreign Policy Division of the Ministry of Justice to arrange for the staff responsible for the departure ban to be on duty, and asked the head of the Corrections Headquarters to inspect the holding capacity of prisons and other correctional facilities. These two instructions constituted the crime of participating in civil strife. However, it also pointed out that Park Seung-jae made these instructions to implement martial law, so they were reasonable. (CCTV News)