Posted on : Aug.28,2018 17:05 KST
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Ex-president Chun Doo-hwan (Hankyoreh archives)
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Defense cites poor health and Alzheimer’s disease as reasons
“The defendant Chun Doo-hwan is not present, is that correct?”
Hon. Judge Kim Ho-seok of the Gwangju District Court’s eighth criminal division posed the question to the defense at the former South Korean President’s trial in the court’s Room 201 at 2:30 pm on Aug. 27.
It was the first day of the trial for Chun, who was indicted without detention on defamation charges for calling the late Father Cho Bi-o (1938–2016) “Satan in a mask” and “a shameless liar” after the priest’s accounts of military helicopters shooting at civilians during the May 1980 Democracy Uprising in Gwangju. Unlike civil cases, criminal cases require defendants to be present in court.
“Mr. Chun suffers from short-term memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease and has been discouraged from making long-distance journeys due to his health,” the defense replied.
“Unavoidably, he could not be present.”
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Ex-president Chun Doo-hwan’s private residence in Seoul on Aug. 27, the first day of his trial for defamation charges. The photo shows the front gate locked shut. Chun cited poor health and Alzheimer’s disease as reasons for not showing up to trial.
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The defense in Chun’s case made it clear that afternoon that it was denying the charge in the prosecutors’ indictment. When asked whether Chun acknowledged the prosecutors’ charge, the defense responded, “While the indictment states that there was shooting from helicopters on May 21 and 27, 1980, the helicopter pilots have denied this, and it conflicts with eyewitness accounts.”
Chun’s defense also suggested that it was unfair for the trial to be held in Gwangju, noting that the Criminal Procedure Act “stipulates that the ‘territorial jurisdiction of the court shall be determined by the place of offense, the place of domicile, residence of the defendant, or the place where the defendant is presently located.”
Surely, a trial in Gwangju may be somewhat inconvenient for Chun, who lives in Seoul. Legally, however, it raises no issues, as Gwangju and South Jeolla Province are included in the “place of offense” where his memoirs have been sold. Among Articles 1 to 16 on choice of jurisdiction in the Criminal Procedure Act, we cannot simply look at Article 4-1 on “Territorial Jurisdiction.”
If anything, it is more reasonable for the trial to take place in Gwangju – where the marks of bullets fired from helicopters were found on the Jeonil Building, and where the witnesses who saw the attack reside.
The trial is also important as an opportunity to resolve the helicopter shooting question in the courtroom. The answer to that question is the key to showing the logical hole in the claims by Chun’s New Military Government that they “had no choice” but to open fire in self-defense. Yet on Aug. 27, Chun had his legal team continue to insist there was no shooting for helicopters in the first place – after a Ministry of National Defense special investigation committee announced its official confirmation on Feb. 7 that the Army did in fact fire from helicopters.
If that is the case, then it is right that Chun should show up to court and state his beliefs, whatever his “reasons of advanced age and ill health” may be. Having published memoirs denying the Gwangju Massacre last year despite ostensibly being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2013, it is pathetic to see him now playing up his health status and acting the victim. Hopefully, we won’t see a repeat of the humiliation of him being forcibly arrested for failing to show up at the next hearing on Oct. 1.
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Former employees who worked at the Jeonil building in downtown Gwangju inspect bullet holes left by helicopter fire on the building’s 10th floor on Feb. 23, 2017. The National Institute of Forensic Scientists determined that the marks were left by helicopter fire that struck the inside of the broadcasting building. (Yonhap News)
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By Jung Dae-hae, staff reporter
Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
