During the administration of Park Chung-hee, the late Jin Doo-hyun received a death sentence due to the so-called Unification Revolution Party (Tonghyuk Party) espionage case. It has been 49 years since the death sentence was finalized in 1976.
On the 29th, the Supreme Court's third division (chief justice Lee Suk-yeon) dismissed the prosecutor's appeal during the sentencing of the retrial case regarding Jin and the late Park Seok-joo, who faced charges of violating the National Security Law, and confirmed the acquittal ruling.
In August 1968, the Korea Central Intelligence Agency announced that 'individuals who received orders from North Korea established the Tonghyuk Party to conduct anti-government activities.' Subsequently, from the 1970s, individuals from the Tonghyuk Party across the country were arrested for allegedly attempting to rebuild the party by receiving orders from North Korea.
As a result of this case, 17 individuals were convicted. The late Jin Doo-hyun received the death sentence, while Park Seok-joo was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Jin was later commuted to life imprisonment and served 16 years before being released in 1990, and he passed away in 2014. It is reported that Park died while serving his sentence in 1984.
Jin and Park's families filed for a retrial in 2017. The families claimed that Jin and Park were subjected to illegal detention and torture by investigators, leading them to give false confessions. The Seoul High Court decided to start the retrial in July 2023, and the panel that handled the retrial at the Seoul High Court acquitted both individuals last October.
The Seoul High Court noted, 'Statements by the defendants that seem to acknowledge the charges were made under circumstances lacking voluntariness after being unlawfully detained and subjected to harsh treatment by the security agency,' adding, 'It is difficult to admit the evidentiary value according to the principle of excluding illegally obtained evidence.'
The prosecutor appealed, but the Supreme Court deemed the retrial panel's judgment correct.
Meanwhile, on that day, the Supreme Court's ruling confirmed the acquittal of three individuals in relation to the Unification Revolution Party espionage case. The late Park Ki-rae, who had previously been sentenced to death, was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2023 after a retrial. The retrials for the late Kim Tae-yeol and the late Kang Eul-seong, who were actually executed, commenced earlier this year.