Murder of doctor's wife likely to trigger forensic debate at court

SEOUL, June 29 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean doctor accused of suffocating his pregnant wife to death will call in a forensic specialist from Canada in order to medically prove his innocence, a move expected to trigger heated court debates with local experts, a Seoul court said on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old doctor, surnamed Baek, was indicted on charges that he murdered his 29-year-old pregnant wife after having a quarrel due to his heavy computer game habit.
The nine-month pregnant woman was found by police at around 5:00 a.m. on Jan. 14 lying dead over a bathtub in the couple's apartment in Seoul. Baek reported his wife's death to police, saying she seemed to have had a deadly accident while he was out.
But prosecutors indicted the doctor, citing forensic results that the direct cause of Park's death was suffocation by human hands. The autopsy also found DNA traces under the victim's fingernails, adding evidence to prosecutors' belief that the couple had a big fight in the night before the wife was found dead.
The defendant, however, has strongly refuted the murder charge, arguing his wife might have slipped in the bathroom and fell, leading to her accidental suffocation.
As part of his efforts to prove his innocence, Baek and his lawyer recently employed Michael S. Pollanen, the Director for the Center for Forensic Science & Medicine at the University of Toronto, to help prove their defending arguments, according to the Seoul Western District Court.
Dr. Pollanen has worked as a forensic specialist in Cambodia, Kazakhstan and East Timor, and also participated in autopsies following the massive 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
Prosecutors are also planning to call in local forensic specialists and professors who took part in Park's autopsy in order to nail down their charges in the next hearing scheduled for July 21.
pbr@yna.co.kr