Gov’t must pay torture victim, family $5.8 million
Published: 28 Dec. 2009, 00:46
The Seoul Central District Court ruled yesterday the Korean government must pay 6.8 billion won ($5.8 million) in compensation to the family of Bae Gyeong-ok, 71, who has been acquitted after serving nearly 21 years in prison on charges of assisting a relative, Lee Su-geun, in a spy case.
Lee was executed by South Korea’s Central Intelligence Agency under the Park Chung Hee regime in 1969 after being convicted as a double agent.
Presiding judge Kim Su-cheon ordered the government to compensate 15 family members, including Bae, with 2.25 billion won. Of that amount, Bae will receive 1 billion won, Kim said.
The judge also ruled the government must pay the remaining 4.55 billion won, interest accumulated since March 1969 when Bae begin a prison sentence, to the family.
“While investigators under the agency were interrogating Bae at the time, they forced him to make a false confession by means of water boarding and electric torture. That caused Bae to serve a wrongful prison sentence for 20 years and 10 months,” the judge said. “The state has the responsibility to compensate Bae for taking him in force without a warrant and not explaining about the right to remain silent.”
Kim ruled against the state’s assertion that the statue of limitations on the case had run out. The judge said there was an objective obstacle that the accused could not file a lawsuit until the final ruling of a retrial last year.
Bae was acquitted in December of last year after applying for a new trial in July 2005.
Lee, who was a vice-president of the state-run Korean Central News Agency in North Korea, defected to the South in March 1967 through the truce village of Panmunjom. Agents arrested Lee in a plane in January 1969 on charges of violating the national security law while Lee was flying to Cambodia with a forged passport.
Lee was executed in July of the same year.
Bae was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of aiding the leakage of state secrets by mailing coded messages to the North. He was in jail until December 1989.
He received criminal compensation worth 1 billion won after a judgment of acquittal but filed a civil lawsuit demanding compensation separately.
By Park Sung-woo, Lee Min-yong [[email protected]]
Lee was executed by South Korea’s Central Intelligence Agency under the Park Chung Hee regime in 1969 after being convicted as a double agent.
Presiding judge Kim Su-cheon ordered the government to compensate 15 family members, including Bae, with 2.25 billion won. Of that amount, Bae will receive 1 billion won, Kim said.
The judge also ruled the government must pay the remaining 4.55 billion won, interest accumulated since March 1969 when Bae begin a prison sentence, to the family.
“While investigators under the agency were interrogating Bae at the time, they forced him to make a false confession by means of water boarding and electric torture. That caused Bae to serve a wrongful prison sentence for 20 years and 10 months,” the judge said. “The state has the responsibility to compensate Bae for taking him in force without a warrant and not explaining about the right to remain silent.”
Kim ruled against the state’s assertion that the statue of limitations on the case had run out. The judge said there was an objective obstacle that the accused could not file a lawsuit until the final ruling of a retrial last year.
Bae was acquitted in December of last year after applying for a new trial in July 2005.
Lee, who was a vice-president of the state-run Korean Central News Agency in North Korea, defected to the South in March 1967 through the truce village of Panmunjom. Agents arrested Lee in a plane in January 1969 on charges of violating the national security law while Lee was flying to Cambodia with a forged passport.
Lee was executed in July of the same year.
Bae was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of aiding the leakage of state secrets by mailing coded messages to the North. He was in jail until December 1989.
He received criminal compensation worth 1 billion won after a judgment of acquittal but filed a civil lawsuit demanding compensation separately.
By Park Sung-woo, Lee Min-yong [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)