Govt. played role in false prosecution of student activist in 1992: truth panel

By Yonhap

Published : Nov. 21, 2018 - 11:21

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The government exerted pressure in the early 1990s to falsely charge a student activist with abetting a friend's suicide and forging his will, a judiciary truth panel said Wednesday.

In 1992, Kang Ki-hoon, then a university student, was sentenced to three years in prison for ghostwriting the will of Kim Ki-sul, who set himself on fire and jumped to his death from a university building in Seoul in protest against the government led by General-turned-President Roh Tae-woo.

In 2015, the Supreme Court acquitted him of all charges, citing a lack of evidence, and acknowledged that he was forced to confess.

(Yonhap)

A committee under the Justice Ministry inquiring about the prosecution's past wrongdoings said that the government put undue pressure on the prosecutors to manipulate the case.

"By manipulating allegations that an innocent man ghostwrote his friend's will, the government left indelible scars on Kang," the panel said. "The incumbent head of the prosecution needs to apologize to him for the prosecution's wrongdoing."

The committee said that the state ordered measures to tackle the situation over Kim's death and the then prosecution general handed down an order for a thorough investigation into those who were behind his death. (Yonhap)

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Govt. played role in false prosecution of student activist in 1992: truth panel

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