Defense ministry appeals court ruling on soldier death in 1984

SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government said Thursday it will
appeal a court ruling that the shooting death of a soldier was covered up as
suicide 26 years ago.
The Seoul Central District Court delivered the verdict Wednesday, awarding the
family of the late private first class 920 million won, or US$780,000, in state
compensation.
In 1984, Heo Won-guen, then 22, was found dead at his military unit in Hwacheon,
about 118 kilometers west of Seoul, with his body riddled with three bullets from
a M16 rifle.
Military authorities concluded that Heo killed himself after being physically
abused by the company commander. But the Presidential Truth Commission on
Suspicious Deaths later overturned the military's findings, saying that he was
killed by a drunken superior.
Heo's family filed a lawsuit against the government, based on the commission's
findings.
On Thursday, the Defense Ministry strongly protested the ruling, and said it will
appeal.
"We were shocked by the ruling as all the evidence had pointed at suicide," said
Cho Dong-yang, head of the defense ministry's legal affairs bureau.
The court said higher-level military officers at Heo's unit appear to have
systemically engineered the cover-up by cleaning the barracks and shooting Heo
two more times in the chest a few hours after he was killed.
"If it is true that Heo died after he was shot in the head, there should have
been no bleeding in his chest," Cho said, explaining a human body does not show
any life responses such as bleeding after death.
The defense ministry believes that Heo shot himself in the chest first and shot
at his head lastly, and had presented to the court several similar suicide cases
involving three or more gunshots.
"The military investigative team had concluded the case was a suicide, not in an
attempt to cover up the killing, but because it did not detect any evidence of
murder," Cho added. "The Korean military has been defamed by this accusation."
At the request of Heo's family, the military police investigated the case several
times in the past decades, but repeatedly concluded it was a suicide.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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