SEOUL– The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed rulings that did not acknowledge part of the state’s responsibility for compensation in a case involving a former student activist who served a prison term on trumped-up charges of abetting a friend’s suicide and forging his will.

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. Later that year, he filed a 3.1 billion-won damage suit against the state and legal authorities.
The Seoul Central District Court and the Seoul High Court ordered the state to compensate Kang in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The courts did not acknowledge the responsibility of prosecutors involved in investigating Kang, citing the statute of limitations expired.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday cited a Constitutional Court decision that the statute of limitations does not apply in compensation suits against the state over serious human rights violations and mass killings of civilians.

The court sent back the case to the Seoul High Court for a retrial, which is expected to raise the amount of compensation to Kang.

In 2018, the high court ordered the state to pay 800 million won (US$606,600) to Kang, 100 million won to his wife, 5 million won each to his two younger brothers, and 100 million won to Kang’s deceased parents.

Source: Yonhap News Agency