Trial of defectors from N. Korean restaurant suspended

Posted on : 2016-06-22 16:29 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Group of lawyers still trying to determine whether or not the waitresses defected of their own free will
13 North Korean workers (one man and 12 women) at an overseas restaurants who entered South Korea on Apr. 7
13 North Korean workers (one man and 12 women) at an overseas restaurants who entered South Korea on Apr. 7

A habeas corpus trial for 12 waitresses who defected as a group from a North Korean restaurant in China before the Apr. 13 general elections was suspended on June 21.

The trial is being held to determine whether the waitresses were admitted to a South Korean protection facility against their will. The court’s move to end the hearing after the women did not report to the courtroom prompted attorneys with the group MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, which made the initial request, to file a motion to change the judge.

According to accounts by sources from the court and MINBYUN on June 21, attorneys with the law firm Bae, Kim & Lee, which is representing the National Intelligence Service (NIS), said the 12 waitresses had “refused to appear in court” for the closed-door hearing by Judge Lee Yeong-je of the 32nd criminal division at Seoul Central District Court earlier that day.

As a reason for the refusal, the NIS said the women had expressed fears that their family members in North Korea could be endangered.

As further reasons for their absence, the NIS reportedly said that, in interviews, the waitresses had indicated their intent to acquire South Korean citizenship with a human rights protection officer and had been granted it as of June 3.

Attorneys with MINBYUN responded by demanding the issuance of another court summons or a warrant to enforce it.

“Given the impossibility of any objective investigation, the only way to determine the truth is by having the waitresses testify before the court,” they argued.

“As we have seen with past instances of falsified espionage charges, the answers that defectors give in their statements tend to change somewhat depending on the format of questions by NIS investigators,” they added.

After the court moved to decline the request and halt the trial, the attorneys drafted and submitted a motion to change the judge, which was accepted by the judge, who suspended the trial.

As a reason for its petition, MINBYUN said the court had failed to observe the open trial principle in accepting the NIS’s request to prohibit recording or transcribing of the proceedings.

“It is a matter of the court’s discretion to determine whether or not the defectors’ reasons for not complying with the court summons were legitimate and whether to summon them again,” said Shin Jae-hwan, Seoul Central District Court’s public relations officer for criminal cases.

On May 24, eight attorneys with MINBYUN - including Lee Jae-hwa, Cheon Nak-bong, and Kim Yong-min - submitted a habeas corpus request for the employees on behalf of their family members, who hired the group through an intermediary in China. A habeas corpus request is a court petition filed by family members of people suspected of being held in facilities unjustly due to illegal administrative measures or the will of others.

The NIS has consistently refused MINBYUN’s requests since last month to be allowed to meet with the waitresses, who are being held at the Defector Protection Center.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government officially confirmed a Hankyoreh report that it had decided not to send the 12 waitresses and their male manager to the Settlement Support Center for North Korean Refugees (Hanawon), as has been the practice in the past. While it cited the en masse nature of the defection and protection of the defectors’ safety as reasons, critics are accusing it of attempting to conceal the orchestrated nature of the defection after its previous disclosure of the event.

By Kim Ji-hoon, Heo Jae-hyun and Kim Jin-cheol, staff reporters

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