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A presidential Truth and Reconciliation Committee has decided to publish the names of 492 judges whose judgments invoked president Park Chung-hee¡¯s draconian emergency decrees in the 1970s. The list includes a dozen sitting senior judges, including three in the Supreme Court and three in the Constitutional Court.
There were complaints from judicial circles that publishing the list compromised the judiciary¡¯s independence and could portray judges who merely applied the law, however draconian, as if their rulings were faulty. The Korean Bar Association in a statement protested against the list. "We need to find the truth but should refrain from dealing with past events in a way detrimental to national development by severing the present from the past or splitting public opinion,¡± it said.
An extraordinary meeting attended by nine of the 15 committee members on Tuesday unanimously decided to publish a report analyzing court rulings on violations of the decrees, right after submitting it to President Roh Moo-hyun and the National Assembly on Wednesday. It includes a list of judges involved. The committee argued the rulings were passed in open court and are no secrets. ¡°In the process of analyzing the details of their rulings, we couldn't find any reason why we should keep the list secret,¡± it said.
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Members of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee leave a conference room in Chungmuro, Seoul, after a meeting on whether to release a list of judges who ruled on violations of the 1970s emergency decrees.
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The Truth Committee agonized over publication of the list for some time. It has faced protests against publishing the names in the report, which it has been preparing since last year. In any case, on Monday a leaked list was published by the Hankyoreh daily, making the decision to announce it the next day meaningless. The Truth Committee was set up in 2005 with a mandate to report its findings to the president and National Assembly twice a year. It has 15 members, eight appointed by the National Assembly, four by the president and three by the Supreme Court chief justice. Members include academics, lawyers and religious figures.
Judges were in uproar. One sitting judge on the list protested it was more than 30 years ago, when he was just an associate judge. He admitted to ¡°a hazy memory¡± and denied there was any point raking up the past. A provincial High Court judge on the list said, "At the time, I just followed positive law, and I had no other choice. We were associate judges, so we were not in a position to decide." The Supreme Court had no comment on Tuesday, but some members slammed the decision as ¡°populism by a third party.¡± "I understand the list includes 18 or 19 incumbent judges,¡± a Supreme Court official said. ¡°Four or five of them are categorized as ruling on cases involving violation of emergency decrees even though they actually dismissed some cases after the emergency decrees were lifted."
A judge at the Seoul Central District Court recalled, "At the time, the Yushin Constitution stipulated that the emergency decrees were 'not subject to judicial review,' thus giving judges no discretion.¡± Park proclaimed the emergency decrees to stifle any criticism of his prolonged hold on power. The judge warned the decision to compile and release such a list could set a bad precedent in influencing judges in their rulings.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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