| Kim Hong-yeol, first from right, former chair of the Gyeonggi branch of the now-disbanded United Progressive Party, submits a retrial application at Seoul Central District Court, southern Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Suh-yoon |
Lee Seok-ki and six others of disbanded leftist party say ruling was rigged
By Lee Suh-yoon
Seven leaders of a now-disbanded left wing party filed for a retrial of a North Korea-affiliated treason case that rattled the nation six years ago, Wednesday, claiming the ruling was rigged by misleading evidence and corrupt ties between the judiciary and the former administration.
Lawyers for former lawmaker Lee Seok-ki and six other former members of the United Progressive Party (UPP) submitted the application for the retrial to the Seoul Central District Court.
The seven were arrested in 2013 on charges of plotting a pro-North Korean rebellion, and were sentenced to jail terms of two to nine years in August 2014 for "inciting" an armed rebellion during two gatherings with dozens of followers in May. Later that year, the Constitutional Court ruled to disband the UPP, saying the small leftist party with five parliamentary seats was a risk to national security due to its "violent" communist motives.
Last year it was alleged that former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae used politically sensitive trials as bargaining chips in dealing with then-Park Geun-hye administration to curry favor for the establishment of a new court of appeals, and the UPP case was one of those trials.
| Lee Seok-ki at Suwon District Court, Gyeonggi Province, in this February 2014 photo / Korea Times file |
Lee, identified as the head of the alleged "armed rebellion," is still serving his jail term at a correctional facility in Daejeon.
"This case was a rebellion plot case without any plot," Kim Hong-yeol, former chair of the Gyeonggi branch of the UPP, said in front of the court. He was recently freed after serving his five-year jail term in relation to the case.
Kim said this case started from gatherings held on May 10 and 12 in 2013, and no evidence was found of connections with North Korea, guns or explosives.
"We were deprived of the right to a fair trial due to the 'trial trade' between Yang's Supreme Court and Park's Cheong Wa Dae," Kim said.
The rulings served as a political victory for the former conservative Park administration. According to the prosecution's investigation, an internal document of the National Court Administration's (NCA) under Yang's Supreme Court specifically mentioned the UPP members' ruling as an example of how the court "cooperated with Cheong Wa Dae's running of state affairs."
The lawyers claim the document proves Kim and Lee's innocence.
"We cannot reverse time, but can correct a ruling and must do so," the group said in a press conference.
They also said officials of the Intelligence Service, then mired in a controversy regarding its intervention in the 2012 presidential elections, leaked scripts from the UPP's 2013 May gatherings to the press and this also constitutes the cause for retrial.
According to the law, a case can be retried if there is new evidence, which can clearly prove the accused's innocence, or if it is clear that investigative authorities committed illegalities while dealing with the case.