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Senior officials of the Minjok Ilbo standing before a junta's court just after Park Chung-hee led military coup in1961.
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Gov't commission has concluded probe of several high-profile cases
As a government commission investigating several past judgements meted out by the dictatorial Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan regime has found holes in the original cases, a series of retrials is expected. One such high-profile case involves the execution of the head of a progressive newspaper. Cho Yong-su, the president of Minjok Ilbo, was hanged in 1961 after military strongman Park Chung-hee took over rule of South Korea via a coup. At that time, Park had ordered the shutdown of the newspaper on grounds that its reporting violated the National Security Law. The daily had been critical of the Park regime. Attorney Cho Yong-whan of the Horizon Law Group said, "We have completed the review of a statement by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and a retrial inquest will be filed by the end of February."Last month, the commission ruled that the charges against Cho were false, and advised a court to try the case again. The retrial will be filed by the late Cho's younger brother, Cho Yong-jun. "I hope my brother's honor will finally be restored," Cho Yong-jun said. In addition, eight relatives of five persons jailed in 1968 on violation of anti-communist laws after being captured by the North Korean coast guard and released four months later are pushing for a retrial. The group had been aboard a fishing boat that had ventured into North Korean waters in the Yellow Sea. The commission ruled that they had been tortured into a confession of spying during their interrogation by South Korean intelligence officials. Bae Byeong-hi and Lee Jun-ho, a mother and son given jail sentences on charges of spying, are also planning a retrial, as the truth commission found that the original ruling was based on false confessions extracted through torture. They were arrested in 1985, but on charges stemming from an incident in 1972 when Lee's uncle, a North Korean agent, crossed over to the South and visited their home on Ganghwa Island, near the North Korean border. Retrials of verdicts handed out during South Korea's dictatorial regimes have already begun. In July 2005, Bae Gyeong-ok, convicted in another alleged spy case, requested a retrial. Bae spent 20 years in jail after her aunt’s husband, Lee Su-geun, former vice president of North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, was hanged on violation of anti-communist laws in 1969 in South Korea. Lee had fled to the South from the North two years earlier. In the meantime, calls are growing for a revision that will allow people to easily file for a retrial. Horizon Law Group's Cho said, "There is always a possibility of a mistake in a ruling, as judges are only human. To minimize the number of victims from potential false rulings, the court should ease the path for people to file for a retrial." Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
