Court Allows Live Coverage of Second Trial for Lee Sang-min over Orders to Cut Power and Water to Media Outlets

[Financial News] The court has approved live coverage of the appeal trial for former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for ordering electricity and water supplies to be cut off to certain media outlets.
According to the legal community on the 18th, Presiding Judge Yoon Sung-sik of the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 1, with Judge Lee Dong-hyun as the reporting judge, approved video recording and broadcast of the first appeal hearing scheduled for this afternoon, in which the former minister faces charges including engaging in key duties related to insurrection.
The broadcast was approved at the request of the Special Prosecutor Team for Insurrection and Treason, led by Cho Eun-seok.
The bench added a condition that it may partially suspend or restrict the broadcast in order to protect national security, public safety and order, public morals, or to maintain order in the courtroom.
The former minister was indicted and detained on December 3 last year on charges that, during the period of emergency martial law, he ordered the National Fire Agency (NFA) to cut off electricity and water to several media outlets, including Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), The Hankyoreh, JTBC (Joongang Tongyang Broadcasting Company), and Kyunghyang Shinmun, as well as to a polling agency. He also faces charges of effectively abetting the illegal declaration of martial law in his capacity as minister in charge of martial law affairs at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, by failing to prevent it, and of giving false testimony during the Constitutional Court of Korea’s impeachment trial of former President Yoon Suk Yeol in February.
The first-instance court stated, "The defendant held a senior public office and was therefore in a position to fully understand the meaning and requirements of emergency martial law as defined by the Constitution and the law. Taking into account that, immediately before instructing the head of the National Fire Agency to cooperate in cutting off power and water to media outlets, he spoke with the commissioner general of the National Police Agency and was aware of the situation in the National Assembly, the court finds that he acted with intent to engage in key duties related to insurrection and with the purpose of undermining the constitutional order," and sentenced the former minister to seven years in prison.

theknight@fnnews.com Jung Kyung-soo Reporter