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Ex officio investigation into the homicide case of a suspect killed by torture in Seoul district prosecutor's offic [2003] KRNHRC 26 (24 February 2003)

(a) Background of Investigation
In the course of processing the complaints, the Commission paid special
attention to the facts that the investigation agencies, even prosecutors, often
executed unlawful emergency arrests, did not comply with the proper procedure
such as duty to notify those arrested of Miranda rights, and occasionally
committed cruel conducts. On October 26, 2002, a suspect, whose name was
Jo, was killed while he was interrogated for a murder case in the special
interrogation room in Seoul District Prosecutor's Office, and suspicions were
aroused that there were cruel conducts inflicted on other suspects who were
also under emergency arrest as accomplices with Jo. Upon hearing this
information, the Commission called an emergency meeting of the Subcommittee
for Investigation of Human Rights Violations and decided to investigate this case
with its ex officio power.
At the same time, the three suspects, who were under emergency arrest as
accomplices of the dead suspect to be interrogated in Seoul District Prosecutor's
Office, filed a complaint with the Commission alleging that three of them were
assaulted by investigators.

(b) Outcome of the Investigation
The Commission conducted investigation for 6 victims and 14 respondents,
examined the materials submitted by the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office,
Seoul District Prosecutor's Office and Seoul District Court, and conducted on-site
investigation into the special interrogation room in Seoul District Court. As a
result, the Commission discovered that Prosecutor Hong and investigators
(hereinafter referred to as "Respondents" collectively) put the victims under
emergency arrest even though the victims did not fall within the requirements
for emergency arrest; the respondents did not notify the victims of the cause of
arrest and the right to an attorney; they forced the victims to make a confession
and committed violence and cruel conducts against the victims after they
brought them to the special interrogation room in Seoul District Prosecutor's
Office; and thus they violated substantially the victims' right to have an
attorney's help, the right to apply for a hearing for legality of arrest and the right
to keep silent.
The respondents put the victims under emergency arrest merely based on the
victims' confession, which they obtained by applying violent force and cruel
conducts to the victims, without notifying them of the facts of the crime, cause
of arrest, the right to an attorney, although they could find the victims'
whereabout before making arrest because most of them had a fixed address and
a regular job. In short, the respondents did not satisfy the requirements for
emergency arrest such as probability of the suspected crime, necessity and
emergency of arrest, and they made the emergency arrest in violation of due
process during the course of arrest to bring them to the special interrogation
room in Seoul District Prosecutor's Office.
While the respondents interrogated the victims in the special interrogation
room, they also forced them to make confession, applied violent force and cruel
conducts isolating them from outside, and so prevented them entirely from
having an attorney's help or applying for a hearing for legality of arrest,
Although most of the victims denied the murder charge against them, application
of violent force and cruel conducts made them confess false admission, and
eventually Jo was killed because of the respondents' cruel conducts.
The respondents' such conducts amounted to unlawful arrest, false
imprisonment, and abuse of ex officio power under the relevant criminal laws.
Since the respondents applied violent force and cruel conducts to the victims
inflicting them bodily injury or death, they violated the "Act on Aggravated
Punishment against Specific Crimes."

(c) Conclusion
Based on the result of the investigation as above, the Commission decided
on February 24, 2003 to file a criminal complaint with Prosecutor General
against the 10 respondents, who arrested and interrogated the victims, on the
charges of unlawful arrest, false imprisonment, and abuse of ex officio power,
and also made a request to Prosecutor General to investigate the other 4
respondents, who prepared the interrogatory for the victims, on the charge of
abuse of ex officio power.
Moreover, the Commission made a recommendation to the Minister of Justice
to prepare an improvement plan for reinforcing the requirements for emergency
arrest and adopting the system for issuing a post-arrest warrant after arrest in
order to eliminate unlawful investigation practices under which investigators
have abused emergency arrest. At the same time, the Commission decide to
request that the Korea Bar Association give legal aid to the victims so that they
could recover their damages in a proper way.
As of the date when the Commission made a decision, a trial was pending
against 9 respondents, who were prosecuted on the charges of violence and
cruel conducts under the "Act on Aggravated Punishment against Specific
Crimes," and so the Commission filed a criminal complaint and a request for
investigation only on the charges of unlawful arrest, false imprisonment and
abuse of ex officio power.