While in detention, Park Geun-hye enjoying unfair special treatment

Posted on : 2017-04-15 15:40 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Park was given an extra large cell, and allowed to stay in a guards’ office for two days while her cell was being renovated
Former President Park Geun-hye is brought from Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office in Seocho district to Seoul Detention Center
Former President Park Geun-hye is brought from Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office in Seocho district to Seoul Detention Center

Controversy is continuing about the special treatment enjoyed by former president Park Geun-hye during her time in jail. The latest news is that Park spent two days in the guards’ office shortly after being admitted into the Seoul Detention Center, located in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province.

Sources in the Ministry of Justice and the Seoul Detention Center told the Hankyoreh on Apr. 14 that the detention center assigned Park a private cell measuring 10.57 square meters when she was put in jail on Mar. 31. But when Park complained about the cell being messy and asked for new wallpaper, the detention center granted her request, the sources said. While her private cell was being renovated, Park stayed in the office of the women’s detention center.

“We had no choice but to let Park sleep in the office for two days while we were building a wall to prevent Park from interacting with the other inmates, in light of regulations about protecting and guarding the former president,” the detention center said after controversy broke out. “It’s not true that Park refused to enter the cell or asked for new wallpaper. We decided to renovate the cell in question because it hadn’t been wallpapered since 2013.”

But this violates the relevant laws. The Act on Execution of the Sentence and Treatment of Prisoners states that when a private cell is inadequate or when an inmate needs physical protection or emotional stability, the inmate is to be assigned to a group cell that is shared with other inmates.

“Park may have the right to be protected outside of the detention center, but inside the center, this law must be obeyed without any exceptions. Inmates are generally detained in places with locking mechanisms, but the office doesn’t have any such mechanisms because it’s the working space for employees. This isn’t something we can just sweep under the rug,” said a former corrections officer. Even if it was necessary to keep Park separate from the other inmates, it’s a serious matter that they used an office instead of another private cell, the former officer said, since this represents an unprecedented level of special treatment.

This is not the only special treatment connected with Park’s detention. The private cell where Park is staying was prepared by renovating a group cell formerly shared by six or seven inmates. Her cell is nearly twice as large as the private cells measuring 6.56 square meters used by ordinary inmates, leading to criticism that Park is being treated with excessive deference. Similar accusations about special treatment were also raised after Park received visits from the director of the Seoul Detention Center on the day she was detained and on the weekend of Apr. 1 and 2.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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