Court: "It is clear that mental distress was suffered"
"Need to prevent recurrence of similar incidents also considered"
The court has ruled that the state must compensate victims and their families who were detained at Samcheong Education Center in the 1980s with over 1.1 billion won.
On the 16th, the Civil Division 33 of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Judge Heo Jun-seo) ruled partially in favor of 24 plaintiffs, including Mr. A, in a damages claim lawsuit against the state, ordering the defendant to pay a total of approximately 1.125 billion won to the plaintiffs. The court ordered compensation ranging from 9 million to over 200 million won to seven victims including Mr. A, and from 2 million to approximately 53 million won to the families of the other plaintiffs.
Samcheong Education Center was an institution established on May 31, 1980, under the National Security Emergency Measures Committee (Gukbowi) set up during the nationwide martial law as part of social purification efforts. Under the pretext of social purification, a total of 60,755 people were arrested without court warrants, and among them, 39,742 received education at military bases.
Mr. A and others were illegally detained by the police in the early 1980s and then transferred to Samcheong Education Center. Most of them were later subjected to forced labor in labor service units and confined in protective custody facilities.
The court cited the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that declared Martial Law Proclamation No. 13, which was the legal basis for establishing Samcheong Education Center, illegal, and recognized the state's liability to compensate the victims of Samcheong Education Center.
The court explained, “Mr. A and others were arrested and detained without warrants, violating their physical freedom and human dignity, and it is clear that they and their families suffered mental distress due to the abuse of public authority through unlawful acts committed in the course of duty.” It also considered the need to prevent recurrence of similar incidents when public officials systematically and intentionally committed serious human rights violations.
The state argued that the statute of limitations had expired, so Mr. A could not claim damages. Even if Mr. A and others only became aware of their damages when the Supreme Court ruled Martial Law Proclamation No. 13 illegal, they filed the lawsuit more than three years after that, thus losing the right to claim damages.
However, the court rejected this, stating, “Since Mr. A qualifies as a victim under the Past Affairs Settlement Act, the short statute of limitations of three years from the date the damage was recognized applies, not the long statute of limitations of ten years from the date the unlawful act was committed.”
Victims of Samcheong Education Center had previously filed lawsuits against the state for damages, but until 2003, the Supreme Court dismissed claims citing the expiration of the statute of limitations. After the Supreme Court invalidated Martial Law Proclamation No. 13 in 2018, victims’ lawsuits have been filed one after another.
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