Kobe resident who served 15 yrs in S. Korean prison granted retrial+

TOKYO, Sept. 20 Kyodo -
The Seoul High Court has decided to hold a retrial for an ethnic Korean
resident of Kobe, western Japan, who served 15 years in South Korean prison for
spying for North Korea, people close to the matter said Monday.
While an acquittal in July of a Kyoto resident has led to another retrial of a
Nara resident over spying cases involving ethnic Koreans of Japan that unfolded
in South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, the case of Lee Hon Chi, 58, is
unprecedented in that he was given one of the heaviest punishments.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said in a 2007 report that there is a strong
possibility that charges against Lee, who was first sentenced to death and then
to life in prison in an appeals court, had been cooked, making his acquittal
almost certain in the coming retrial.
The Kobe-born man, who was a Samsung Electronics employee, was convicted of
violating the National Security Law for joining Samsung and entering South
Korea to obtain secrets after sneaking into North Korea at the instruction of a
North Korean agent while he was a university student in Japan, and receiving
training there.
Life in prison was finalized as his punishment, and he served 15 years in
prison until his release in 1996.
But in its investigation, the ministry failed to confirm the existence of the
agent, who purportedly instructed Lee. A university lecturer also testified
that Lee was in Japan during a period when he is said to have traveled to North
Korea, giving him a plausible alibi.
The high court acknowledged in its decision that Lee was detained by the South
Korean military's Defense Security Command in October 1981 without a warrant,
illegally held for 19 days and subjected to torture.
Lee's 53-year-old wife, Pak Jong Suk, was also detained along with him and gave
birth to their son at a military facility six days later.
Lee has argued that he was threatened to do what investigators told him to do
if he wanted to see his wife and son again and that he copied a statement made
by the investigators that detailed a crime he purportedly committed.
''I want to tell Japanese and South Korean societies the existence of similar
sufferings by proving my innocence as soon as possible and want to help other
victims restore their reputation,'' he said.
A number of ethnic Korean residents of Japan were held in South Korea in the
1970s and 1980s for allegedly spying for North Korea. It is believed that many
of the cases were fabricated because the autocratic government at the time
apparently wanted to suppress democracy movements.
In July, Lee Jong Soo, a resident of Kyoto, became the first to be acquitted in
a retrial over the spying cases, and the ruling has since been finalized. A
South Korean court also decided in August to hold a retrial for another ethnic
Korean man, Yun Jong Hon, who lives in the city of Nara.
==Kyodo
2010-09-20 22:35:52