Faces, names, ages of suspects to be disclosed

The government yesterday decided to make public the faces of those suspected to have committed heinous crimes after a heated dispute over human rights and the public`s right to know.

The Cabinet passed the revision bill on the felon law that would allow authorities to disclose personal information including the face, name and age of suspects of murder, rape and other grave crimes, the Justice Ministry said.

The disclosure will be limited to suspects who have confessed their crimes or who face a high degree of suspicion.

Public interest such as the people`s right to know and the need to prevent ever increasing crimes may also be subject of consideration, said officials.



"Amid the steadily increasing rate of felonious crimes such as murder and rape, we intend to provide for the legal grounds on which investigators may better protect the public`s rights by revealing the felon information," said a Justice Ministry official.

Korea is one of the few countries that restrict felon information disclosure, according to officials.

Last year a total of 1,109 murder were a 2.3 percent increase from the 1,084 in 2004, according to the ministry data. The number of reported rapes leapt by 42.2 percent from 6,956 in 2004 to 9,893 last year.

Among the cases bringing the disclosure issue to the fore was that of confessed serial murderer Kang Ho-soon.

Kang was indicted in February for killing a total of 12 women, including his ex-wife and mother-in-law who died in a fire in 2005.

In a survey conducted by the Korea Press Foundation soon after Kang`s arrest, 65 percent of 1,146 were media employees surueyed approved of revealing Kang`s face and other personal information.

Of the 1,000 respondents in a survey conducted by the Korea Society Opinion Institute, 79.4 percent answered likewise.

Kang was sentenced to capital punishment in a district court ruling in April, and is presently awaiting the appeal court`s decision on his sentence.

"The controversies on felon information disclosure are about the conflicts between the public interest and the suspect`s right of privacy," said a ministry official. "The right to privacy may give way to other preceding basic rights when necessary."

(tellme@heraldm.com)



By Bae Hyun-jung