Supreme Court says ministry must fess up on amnesty case

Justice Ministry had kept mum on high-profile amnesties; court says it must declassify information

The Supreme Court ruled Sunday that the Justice Ministry must make public documents that outline its rationale behind a decision to pardon several politicians and prominent figures convicted of corruption.

The court’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit against the Minister of Justice filed by the civic watchdog organization Lawyers for a Democratic Society, alleging the presidential right to issue amnesty was being "politically abused, without principles and standards." The lawsuit called for justice ministry documentation on the amnesty cases to be made public.

The court ruled that "allowing access to [the relevant] information would aid in people’s free exercise of their political will," something that would keep the abuse of the power of pardon in check, it said.

"As long as the disclosure of information is not about denying the government’s authority to pardon individuals," permitting access to information about the government’s rationale behind the issuing of amnesty "could prevent that authority from being abused," the court said. It said the benefit of disclosing information was greater than the benefit of maintaining the privacy of convicted persons subsequently granted pardons.

The legal watchdog organization filed its lawsuit after former president Kim Young-sam’s son Kim Hyun-chul, former interior minister Kim U-seok, and former parliamentarians Hwang Byeong-tae and Kim Byeong-o were pardoned in August 1999 on charges of corruption. It demanded that the government release the justice minister’s formal "recommendation of amnesty" for the convicted men, as well as material on the cabinet’s deliberations regarding the case.

Until now, the Justice Ministry has refused to disclose any information whatsoever surrounding the case, saying that such material "could lead to the defamation of those involved" by violating the privacy of the men after their having been granted amnesty. The ministry fought the lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court.

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