South Korea’s former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to five years in jail for charges including resisting arrest, marking the disgraced ex-leader’s first sentence in a slew of pending cases connected to his declaration of martial law.

The Seoul Central District Court on Friday found Yoon guilty of unlawfully obstructing authorities’ attempts to arrest him last year, and also of abuse of power in connection to his selective use of members of the Cabinet in an ultimately doomed effort to legitimize his decision to impose martial law.

Yoon’s legal representative told Bloomberg News that he will appeal the ruling.

The verdict marks the first ruling against the ousted leader in a series of trials stemming from his move, which plunged South Korea into its worst constitutional crisis in decades. Earlier this week prosecutors sought the death penalty for Yoon on insurrection charges in a separate case, with a verdict for that one expected next month.

The ex-leader, who was impeached and stripped of office over the shock declaration, spent days holed up at his official residence in January last year, repeatedly defying summonses for questioning. He was eventually arrested in a dramatic pre-dawn operation. Investigators’ first attempt to detain him collapsed following an hours-long standoff, as his security team blocked access.

Yoon abused his “immense authority as president” by unlawfully obstructing the execution of the warrant, effectively turning his “public officials sworn to serve South Korea into personal instruments for the protection of his own safety and private interests,” Judge Baik Dae-hyun said during the sentencing hearing televised live.

Yoon had barricaded himself inside his Seoul residence, shielded by buses, barbed wire, armed guards and crowds of supporters — a tense showdown that raised fears of a violent confrontation with law enforcement.

“Despite this, the defendant has persisted in advancing implausible explanations for his conduct and has demonstrated no genuine remorse or reflection on his wrongdoing,” Baik said.

“In light of these factors, and given the imperative to restore the rule of law that was undermined by the defendant’s actions while serving as president, a severe punishment proportionate to the defendant’s criminal responsibility is warranted,” the judge added.

The former president is accused of sending soldiers into parliament in a bid to lock down the National Assembly. The effort failed, and lawmakers swiftly voted to end martial law. The short-lived decree ultimately led to his impeachment and the first-ever arrest and indictment of a sitting president of Korea.

Yoon has denied any wrongdoing, saying his martial law declaration was a desperate bid to counter what he claimed were North Korea sympathizers trying to paralyze his administration.

“Today’s guilty verdict overly simplifies the boundary between the exercise of the president’s constitutional authority and criminal liability,” Yoon’s lawyer said in a statement. “If this logic is maintained, no future president will be able to make decisive judgments in times of crisis.”

Many former South Korean presidents have been prosecuted, jailed, then pardoned after leaving office. But Yoon is the first ex-leader in decades to face the prospect of a death sentence, even though it will likely be largely symbolic as the country has not carried out any executions since 1997.

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—With assistance from Shinhye Kang and Seyoon Kim.

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