S. Korean court orders retrial of Kyoto resident over spying+

TOKYO, May 14 Kyodo -
A South Korean high court has ordered a retrial for an ethnic Korean man living
in Kyoto who served years in South Korean prison for spying in the 1980s,
people familiar with the case said Friday.
The decision by the Seoul High Court is the first concerning a political
detainee who was imprisoned with other ethnic Korean residents of Japan after
being found guilty of spying for North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. It has
long been suspected that the cases were fabricated by counterintelligence
agents who used torture.
Lee Jong Soo, a 51-year-old South Korean national, is certain to be acquitted
once the retrial is held, given that a South Korean government agency has
concluded that the case against him was fabricated.
In a decision dated May 7, the high court determined that Lee was detained in
November 1982, while he was studying in Seoul, by the military's Defense
Security Command and that he was held for 39 days without a warrant and
subjected to torture. The illegal acts justified a retrial, the decision said.
Lee was indicted for gathering military secrets in South Korea at the
instruction of a person related to the pro-Pyongyang General Association of
Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryon.
Although Lee insisted during the trial that he was forced to confess after
being subjected to electrocution and other acts of torture, he was sentenced to
10 years in prison for violating the National Security Law and served time
until he was granted amnesty in 1988.
Arguing that he was wrongly convicted, Lee filed for a reinvestigation with
South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2005. The panel
recommended a retrial in 2008 after concluding that the criminal charges
against Lee were fabricated by the military apparatus.
The panel also found that six other ethnic Korean residents of Japan suffered
in a similar manner and is in the process of investigating 13 other cases
involving Korean residents of Japan who were convicted of political crimes in
South Korea.
It is believed that cases of spying were fabricated at the time because the
autocratic government wanted to deflect growing demands for democracy by
encouraging anxiety over security.
In recent years, dozens of people have been acquitted of spying charges through
retrials in South Korea.
A total of 321 people were accused of spying after infiltrating South Korea
from Japan between 1970 and 1989, and most of the suspects were ethnic Korean
residents of Japan.
More than 100 ethnic Koreans convicted on spying charges in South Korea have
called for their names to be cleared.
==Kyodo
2010-05-14 23:17:59


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