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US$2m paid over spy charges
Source: AFP |
September 5, 2012, Wednesday
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A South Korean court yesterday awarded a fisherman compensation of more than US$2 million for being tortured and imprisoned in the 1980s on false charges of spying for North Korea.
The Seoul Central District court ordered a payment of 2.45 billion won (US$2.2 million) to the fisherman, identified as Cheong, and six of his family members named in the compensation suit.
Cheong, along with dozens of other fishermen, was briefly detained in North Korea in 1965 after they were seized while collecting shellfish in the Yellow Sea.
Seventeen years later, in 1982, he was taken into custody by South Korea's military-backed government and grilled for 13 days by counter-espionage agents who accused him of spying for North Korea.
Released without charge, he was detained again the following year for 38 days, and ended up signing a confession under torture which led to his wife and brother confessing under similar duress.
Cheong, now 71, served 15 years in prison before being released on parole in 1998.
"The investigators fabricated evidence and extracted false confessions through torture and threats," the court said in a statement. "At that time the court also handed down a guilty verdict without verifiable evidence."
Cheong's innocence was confirmed by South Korea's Supreme Court in January last year.
Thousands of South Korean fishermen were captured and detained in North Korea following the end of the Korean War in 1953. Most were returned to South Korea where they often faced charges of having been recruited as North Korean spies.
The Seoul Central District court ordered a payment of 2.45 billion won (US$2.2 million) to the fisherman, identified as Cheong, and six of his family members named in the compensation suit.
Cheong, along with dozens of other fishermen, was briefly detained in North Korea in 1965 after they were seized while collecting shellfish in the Yellow Sea.
Seventeen years later, in 1982, he was taken into custody by South Korea's military-backed government and grilled for 13 days by counter-espionage agents who accused him of spying for North Korea.
Released without charge, he was detained again the following year for 38 days, and ended up signing a confession under torture which led to his wife and brother confessing under similar duress.
Cheong, now 71, served 15 years in prison before being released on parole in 1998.
"The investigators fabricated evidence and extracted false confessions through torture and threats," the court said in a statement. "At that time the court also handed down a guilty verdict without verifiable evidence."
Cheong's innocence was confirmed by South Korea's Supreme Court in January last year.
Thousands of South Korean fishermen were captured and detained in North Korea following the end of the Korean War in 1953. Most were returned to South Korea where they often faced charges of having been recruited as North Korean spies.
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