[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] A Korean-Japanese who was wrongfully imprisoned for over 10 years after being sentenced to death as a spy has had his sentence reduced to 4 years in prison in a retrial held 37 years later. The court ruled that most of the evidence presented by the prosecution at the time was obtained through illegal detention and torture, and thus lacked evidentiary value.
According to the legal community on the 3rd, the 29th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Changhyung) recently sentenced the late Korean-Japanese Mr. Kim, who was indicted in 1984 on 42 charges including violation of the National Security Act (espionage, special infiltration and escape), to 4 years in prison in a retrial.
Korean-Japanese Mr. Kim was investigated by the Agency for National Security Planning and the prosecution and brought to trial on charges of entering the North Korean embassy in Vienna, Austria in 1980 (when he was 59 years old), and visiting North Korea a year later to receive orders from the North.
The first and second trial courts recognized the charges of espionage under the National Security Act and sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court also dismissed Kim’s appeal, upholding the original verdict. After serving about 14 years, Kim was released in 1998 on a suspension of sentence execution.
Mr. Kim passed away in 2009. This retrial was requested in 2016 by his son, born to Kim and his Japanese wife.
In the retrial court, Kim’s defense attorney argued, “The statements of the defendant and co-defendants at the time were made under illegal detention and torture, and therefore have no evidentiary value.”
Regarding the charges, the defense emphasized, “There is no evidence proving that the defendant entered the North Korean embassy in Vienna,” and “The visit to North Korea was not to receive orders but to meet his repatriated sister and nephews.”
The court also found that a significant portion of the evidence presented by the prosecution was obtained through illegal detention and torture and thus lacked evidentiary value, acquitting Kim of 40 charges including violation of the National Security Act. However, two charges, including special infiltration and escape, were found guilty.
The court stated, “Kim visited the North Korean embassy in Vienna and North Korea to receive orders from the North, which constitutes special infiltration under the National Security Act,” and noted, “This was a part of his own answers to his lawyer’s questions, not the prosecutor’s.”
At the same time, the court added, “Meeting North Korean nephews appears to be a significant motive for the escape,” and “He failed to properly carry out the orders he received and made various efforts for ethnic harmony, such as opposing the repatriation of Korean residents in Japan.”
The defense team filed an appeal on the 1st, dissatisfied with this ruling, aiming to argue for a complete acquittal.
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