Aide puts torture behind him

The Blue House senior secretary for welfare and labor, Lee Tae-bok, is not a man to hold a grudge. Mr. Lee says he will appeal for the release from prison of Lee Keun-an, a former police interrogator now serving time for the torture of democracy activists, including Mr. Lee, in the 1980s.

Mr. Lee said Wednesday, " I have already forgiven him. He was a low-level functionary of the regime and, in a way, another one of its victims."

Mr. Lee was detained, interrogated and tortured for two months in June 1981 for calling for the dismantling of the Chun Doo-hwan administration after civilians were killed in Gwangju during the suppression of a popular revolt there in 1980. He was sentenced to life in prison but was released in October 1988.

Lee Keun-an, the former police official, is serving a seven-year term after the Supreme Court found him guilty of torturing democracy activists with electricity and water in the early 1980s. He was imprisoned in September 2000.

The Blue House secretary's announcement came as a government committee, set up under a 1998 law to compensate democracy activists, hailed his contribution to the movement. Mr. Lee said "I am glad that the committee has belatedly acknowledged my efforts to expand basic human rights and alleviate the pain of our citizens."

by Chun Young-gi