hankyoreh

Yesterday, a court ordered the government to pay Ham Ju-myeong and his family 1.4 billion won (US$1.4 million) as compensation for wrongfully convicting him and putting him in prison for 16 years. It was last year that he finally won his innocence, and once again a court has found that the state has responsibility to bear for his ordeal, deciding that the statute of limitations does not apply in civil cases relating to illegal, inhumane crimes perpetrated by state agencies. The families of Suzy Kim and Tsche Chong-kil were awarded compensation on the same reasoning. We hope to see these judgments become the norm, as they find that the state cannot hide behind the curtain of the statute of limitations to avoid bearing responsibility for compensation of those wrongfully accused.

It remains extremely difficult for those that were victims of torture and fabricated allegations during South Korea’s dictatorships to establish the legal truth, have their reputations restored, and receive just compensation. Legislation has made it somewhat possible for persons that were wronged in the course of the struggle for democracy or in major incidents in recent history to have their reputations restored, but when common farmers and fishermen like Ham find themselves hit with charges of espionage and put in prison for well over a decade, few in society ever even notice. There remain today close to 100 individuals seeking help from human rights and civic groups as they try to get their cases retried, based on the fact their convictions were made through torture or fabrication on the part of the state.

Progress has been slow, however. Official confessions by state agencies about the crimes they once committed are still a far cry from new evidence, and the courts, citing the need for "legal stability," have been excruciatingly particular when reviewing these cases. It has already been some time since the National Assembly lost interest in the various legislative bills that would have called for easing the conditions for retrying criminal cases and the exclusion of the statute of limitations on crimes of the state, and the truth and reconciliation commission inaugurated last year has had its investigative and disciplinary authority reduced to the point that it is almost nothing more than an archive. And do we not still live in a world where politicized red-baiting charges fill the air, and over vague "spying" allegations? If this is how it is going to be, the painful cries of victims of torture and official fabrications are again going to have their cases buried in history.

The country is not without a realistic method to deal with the situation. The Supreme Court has stated that it is going to correct the wrongful "public security" and "emergency situation" convictions from the dictatorship years. The chief justice recently said he would see to it that judgments from retrials specifically state that the courts were wrong in their initial conviction. What is most important is that the courts adopt a profoundly different attitude about the wrongs of the past, as can be seen in recent compensation decisions. Other diverse ideas that would not hurt "legal stability" need to be considered as well, such as establishing a special court for retrying cases such as these.

[englishhani@hani.co.kr]