An 80-Year-Old Man Wrongfully Imprisoned Due to the October Yushin... Acquitted After 48 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-gi] An man in his 80s who was imprisoned on charges of spreading rumors during the emergency martial law declared in October 1972 under the Yushin regime was acquitted after 48 years.

The Criminal Division 3 of the Seoul Northern District Court (Chief Judge Ma Seong-yeong) announced on the 28th that it overturned the original guilty verdict against Kim Mo (84), who was convicted of violating the Martial Law Act, and acquitted him in a retrial.

Kim was prosecuted on charges of spreading rumors for making statements such as "The armored vehicles of the martial law troops in front of the National Assembly are in firing position; will they shoot the people or the communists?" and "If a re-election is held, the National Assembly Secretariat staff will be reduced by half" at a barbershop in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, around 6 p.m. on October 22, 1972, and was sentenced to three years in prison by a military court.

In January of the following year, at the appeal trial held by the Army High Military Court, Kim was sentenced to six months in prison. When the sentence was reduced to three months by the jurisdictional officer of the Army High Military Court, he gave up his appeal, and the sentence was finalized. The martial law proclamation issued at the time included prohibitions on indoor and outdoor gatherings and demonstrations for political activities, bans on fabrication and dissemination of rumors, prior censorship of the press, and university closures.

Last year, the prosecution filed for a retrial, arguing that the martial law proclamation, which was the basis for punishing Kim at the time, was unconstitutional from the start. The court accepted this and acquitted Kim. The court cited the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that the emergency martial law proclamation during the October Yushin was unconstitutional and illegal, stating, "The martial law proclamation was issued without meeting the activation requirements prescribed by the Constitution and laws, infringing on the basic rights of the people," and "Since the martial law proclamation was unconstitutional and invalid from the outset, the charges against Kim are not criminal."