Judicial branch set to apologize for past wrongs

Posted on : 2008-09-25 12:43 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
With case evidence missing or incomplete, debate rages over the courts’ ability to thoroughly and accurately assess its history
 with Lee set to issue an official apology for the court’s past wrongs on September 26
with Lee set to issue an official apology for the court’s past wrongs on September 26

The judicial branch’s close to three-year study of wrongs committed in its political past will most likely come to a close with an apology that speaks only to generalities and without assessment and reflection on individual court judgments, it has been learned, largely because records on individual cases are often non-existent and because it could hurt the authority and independence of courts that review the cases in question. Nevertheless, some observers suggest the judicial branch never had any intention of confronting its past, especially when compared to truth-finding commissions at other organs of the state, including the National Intelligence Service.

“It will be hard for individual cases to be part of the judicial branch’s reflections on its history,” said a high-ranking administrative official at the Supreme Court. “I think it might even be hard for there to be specific comment on individual cases.” It has been learned that the Supreme Court intends to bring the inquiry to a close by issuing its assessment about court judgments that used written documentation of interrogations from investigative agencies.

In politically-charged cases it was often the case that the courts would recognize the results of interrogations by writing in their judgments something to the effect that “even though the accused says he was tortured,” there is “no evidence that the confession was false and the result of torture and threats.”

Another Supreme Court official said that in political cases from the seventies and eighties it was common for there to have been problems with the evidence. “Courts needed to have dug into whether confessions were forced or voluntary, and they didn’t.” He also said the highest court plans to include mention of that in a written history being published on the 60th anniversary of its establishment.

Some rank and file officials within the judicial branch say the results of the truth-finding inquiry are nothing close to what had been expected when Chief Justice Lee Yong-hoon was sworn in three years ago saying he would have the judicial branch confront its past. Lee has already said it would be hard to have the court initiate retrials on cases that may have been miscarriages of justice, and the specifics and even the format of what it has done so far have not met with expectations. The court had initially chosen some 224 cases between 1972 and 1987 in which the trial record notes there were allegations of false confessions forced by torture. They included the “Ethnic Korean Student from Japan Spy Case” of 1975, the “Aramhoe Case” of 1980, the “Song Family Spy Ring Case” of 1982, and the “Korean Students in Europe and America Spy Ring Case” of 1985.

The court official explained that in many cases only judgments remain and investigation documents are nowhere to be found, and that if the Supreme Court were to cite individual cases as problematic it could hurt the authority of lower courts, which have been asked to grant retrials. Some observers are saying the fact that some of the judges involved in those cases are still on the bench would also make it difficult to discuss individual cases.

Chief Justice Lee is expected to issue an official apology to the Korean people on September 26, at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the judicial branch of government. There are reportedly very different views within the court system, with some saying the apology is too much and others saying it will be insufficient.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]