ID :
182694
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 14:19
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/182694
The shortlink copeid
Court orders gov't, ex-president to compensate victims of fake charges
SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court on Tuesday ordered the state and a former president to pay 1 billion won (US$917,000) in compensation to two former opposition lawmakers who served prison terms after being convicted of fabricated charges under the military dictatorship in 1980.
The former legislators, Lee Shin-bom and Lee Tek-don, were sentenced to 12 years and two years in prison, respectively, in connection with a democratic uprising by tens of thousands of citizens in the southwestern city of Gwangju in May 1980.
The military government at the time, led by President Chun Doo-hwan, manipulated the case as a rebellion attempt plotted by then-dissident leader Kim Dae-jung against the government and arrested Kim and 24 other key opposition figures on charges of conspiracy of a rebellion and violations of national security and martial laws.
Kim was sentenced to death in 1981 for plotting the uprising, although the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and then to a 20-year prison term. Kim lived in exile in the United States after the term was suspended and became the South Korean president in 1998. He won an acquittal on his rebellion charges in 2004, one year after finishing his five-year presidency.
The two lawmakers were cleared of the charges against them in a retrial in 2007 and filed a compensation suit against the government and former President Chun.
"Investigators of the martial law command illegally arrested them and forced them to make false confessions with means of torture, violence and threats," the Seoul Central District Court said in a verdict. "(The two former lawmakers) were convicted of the charges ... based on evidence collected by illegal acts."
The court said the government, Chun and Lee Hak-bong, a chief investigator in the martial law command at the time, were jointly responsible for compensating the former lawmakers for the illegal acts, refuting the claims that the statute of limitation on the case had run out already.
brk@yna.co.kr