South Korea's former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to two years in prison by a Seoul district court on Monday, 13 July, after being found partially guilty of accepting illegal political funds in the form of free opinion polls from a self-proclaimed power broker. The verdict marks yet another courtroom blow for the jailed former leader, who is already serving a life sentence on insurrection charges.

What the Court Decided

The Seoul Central District Court convicted Yoon of violating the Political Funds Act, ruling that he had received 14 opinion polls free of charge from power broker Myung Tae-kyun over a period spanning April 2021 to March 2022. The court also ordered a forfeiture of 13.96 million won. Myung was separately sentenced to 18 months in prison on related charges.

The bench accepted the special counsel's argument that Yoon had promised to back former Representative Kim Young-sun's nomination as a candidate for the conservative People Power Party (PPP) in the June 2022 parliamentary by-elections, in exchange for the polls. Special Counsel Min Joong-ki's team had sought a four-year sentence for Yoon and a three-year term for Myung — both stiffer than what the court ultimately handed down.

Key Quote from the Bench

'The defendant's actions sowed distrust in politics and undermined the public trust in the development of democracy,' the court stated. 'A punishment commensurate with the wrongdoing is inevitable.'

The Divergence from Kim Keon Hee's Acquittal

The ruling stands in notable contrast to an earlier verdict involving Yoon's wife, former first lady Kim Keon Hee. In April, the Seoul High Court acquitted Kim on the same charges of accepting free opinion polls from Myung, reasoning that the couple could not be seen as having profited from the polls since Myung had provided them to others as well. The special counsel has since appealed that acquittal.

Yoon's lawyers cited this divergence in their immediate response, calling the verdict 'difficult to understand' given Kim's acquittal in her separate trial. They confirmed they would appeal the two-year sentence.

Context: A Leader Under Multiple Trials

This conviction is the latest in a series of legal proceedings against Yoon following his failed 2024 martial law bid. In February, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection through the short-lived imposition of martial law — a dramatic episode that upended South Korean politics. The special counsel team described Monday's ruling as 'very meaningful,' noting the court appeared to have weighed the evidence and arguments carefully.

The original indictment alleged that Yoon, his wife, and Myung colluded to receive a total of 58 opinion polls worth approximately 270 million won (around USD 180,100) for free — though the court ultimately recognised only 14 of those polls in its guilty finding. With appeals now expected from both Yoon's defence and, separately, from the special counsel in Kim's case, the legal proceedings surrounding the former president are far from over.