2011/01/02 10:33 KST
Gov't ordered to pay 2 bln won compensation for fabricated spy case
GWANGJU, Jan. 2 (Yonhap) -- A local court has ordered the government to pay 1.9 billion won (US$1.7 million) in compensation to the surviving family members of a South Korean victim in a fabricated spy case in the 1970s, court officials said Sunday.
Kim Bok-jae had been charged in 1971 with smuggling himself into Japan to join the pro-North Korean residents league and spying for the organization. He confessed to his espionage charges during an investigation and was given a 10-year jail term for violating the national security law. After being released from prison, he died in 1986 after suffering from the aftereffects of torture.
Fourteen of his family members applied for a retrial in May last year at the recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a special committee established in 2005 to investigate past human rights atrocities, and filed a suit against the government seeking reparations after being acquitted of the charges.
"Kim was arrested by authorities without a warrant and was not given the opportunity to defend himself," the Gwangju District Court said in a ruling. "The court acknowledges that Kim, unable to endure beatings, electric shocks and water torture, confessed to false charges that officers read to him."
Even after being released on parole shortly before completing his term, the victim was monitored by law enforcement agencies, and his family was stigmatized as having a convicted spy as the head of the household, the court said.
"This is illegal conduct in which the state violated the Constitution to infringe upon people's basic rights," the court added.
South Korea's National Security Law prohibits its citizens from contacting North Koreans without government approval or engaging in activities benefiting the North. The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
Kim Bok-jae had been charged in 1971 with smuggling himself into Japan to join the pro-North Korean residents league and spying for the organization. He confessed to his espionage charges during an investigation and was given a 10-year jail term for violating the national security law. After being released from prison, he died in 1986 after suffering from the aftereffects of torture.
Fourteen of his family members applied for a retrial in May last year at the recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a special committee established in 2005 to investigate past human rights atrocities, and filed a suit against the government seeking reparations after being acquitted of the charges.
"Kim was arrested by authorities without a warrant and was not given the opportunity to defend himself," the Gwangju District Court said in a ruling. "The court acknowledges that Kim, unable to endure beatings, electric shocks and water torture, confessed to false charges that officers read to him."
Even after being released on parole shortly before completing his term, the victim was monitored by law enforcement agencies, and his family was stigmatized as having a convicted spy as the head of the household, the court said.
"This is illegal conduct in which the state violated the Constitution to infringe upon people's basic rights," the court added.
South Korea's National Security Law prohibits its citizens from contacting North Koreans without government approval or engaging in activities benefiting the North. The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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