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The Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday posthumously cleared eight defendants of sedition, 32 years after they were executed on trumped-up charges of trying to reconstitute the banned People's Revolutionary Party. The defendants were summarily executed only 18 hours after they were sentenced to death.
In 1973, student protests under the leadership of the National Democratic Young Students League became a worry for the authoritarian Park Chung-hee government. The following year, the then Korean Central Intelligence Agency rounded up 270 people accusing them of trying to foment a rebellion by reconstituting the proscribed People's Revolutionary Party on the orders of North Korea. Seven defendants accused of rebuilding the party and a member of the NDYSL were executed only 18 hours after they were sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 1975. Branded a "judicial murder", the incident has haunted Korea for decades.
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Kang Sun-hee (center) the widow of the late Woo Hong-seon, sheds tears on her way out of a courtroom on Tuesday after the Seoul Central District Court cleared her husband and seven other executed defendants of trumped-up sedition charges.
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Tuesday¡¯s judgment belatedly clears the name of the eight victims and shows the judiciary at work correcting the wrongs of its past. Surviving defendants are preparing to apply for a retrial and are suing the state for pain and suffering.
The court accepted the general conclusion that the incident was fabricated by the Park government and cleared all eight defendants of violating the Presidential Emergency Decree, the National Security Law and the Anticommunist law, and of conspiracy to foment rebellion. The court rejected the KCIA¡¯s interrogation records and defendants' statements on grounds that they were either fabricated or made under duress. The ruling is part of the judiciary¡¯s efforts to correct past wrongs promoted by Supreme Court Chief Justice Lee Yong-hun since his inauguration. It is likely to influence the review of other compromised judgments in public and national security-related cases from the authoritarian era.
On hearing the judgment, the families of the victims, who took the defendants' seats instead of them, could not hold back their tears. Despite the presiding judge's admonition, the audience in the gallery broke into applause. During the presiding judge¡¯s 30-minute reading of the decision, 120-odd spectators including reporters sighed, clapped and wept audibly. Leaving the courtroom, the families expressed mixed emotions, saying they felt too distressed to be delighted after a patient 30-year battle. "At the time, I didn't know why my husband was arrested. I lived in mortification, trying to comfort my young children and control myself,¡± recalled Lee Yeong-gyo, the widow of defendant Ha Jae-wan. ¡°I think it¡¯s good that I¡¯ve lived to see this day." Kang Sun-hee, the widow of Woo Hong-seon, said she lived in shame because she was branded as the wife of a communist. ¡°I was even more upset that the state wouldn¡¯t listen to us,¡± she added.
In a joint statement, activists led by the Truth Committee on the People's Revolutionary Party Incident and the Catholic Human Rights Committee, which had worked to discover the truth, welcomed the decision. "It is a victory for the arduous struggle by the bereaved families who have lived in distress for 32 years, as well as a victory for human rights,¡± the statement said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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