South Korea's ex-spy chief Cho Tae-yong gets 18-month prison term

A Seoul court on Thursday sentenced former South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Cho Tae-yong to one and a half years in prison for making false testimony related to former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief imposition of martial law in December 2024, News.Az reports, citing Yonhap.

The Seoul Central District Court delivered the sentence after finding Cho guilty of providing false testimony to the Constitutional Court, where he claimed he had not received martial law-related documents from Yoon.

He was also convicted of producing false official documents in connection with written testimonies he submitted.

However, the ruling was significantly lighter than the seven-year prison term requested by special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team, which had also indicted Cho on additional charges, including dereliction of duty.

Prosecutors argued that Cho failed to report Yoon’s martial law plan to the National Assembly, despite allegedly being aware of plans to deploy troops to block the National Assembly and detain politicians.

Under South Korean law, the NIS director is required to promptly report any developments with major national security implications to the president and the parliamentary intelligence committee.

The court acquitted Cho of that charge, stating that it could not rule out the possibility that he may have considered the alleged plan to be mere rumor.

“The defendant made false statements and created false public documents in order to reduce his own responsibility,” the court said. “The nature of the crime is not light.”

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev