The Presidential Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths said yesterday it found sufficient evidence that the 24 individuals indicted with the case were framed by the authorities.
``We confirmed the officials used electricity and water torture, fabricated evidence and disregarded almost all judiciary principles,’’ said Kim Jun-kon of the commission.
The ``People’s Revolutionary Party’’ case first emerged in August 1964, when the KCIA announced it found an underground party of communist activists. The group, the KCIA alleged, also masterminded anti-Japan protests by students prior to Seoul’s normalization of diplomatic ties with Japan.
Eleven years later, in April 1974, when the anti-Park Chung-hee movement gained nationwide momentum, the government accused some key activists of trying to rebuild the illegal party.
Of the 1,024 arrested, eight were executed on April 9, one day after the Supreme Court gave its verdict. Fifteen were given sentences of 15 years or longer, and one of them, Chang Sok-ku, died in prison.
The Geneva-based International Law Association called April 9 ``the darkest day’’ in the history of law.
Since March last year, the truth-finding commission has looked into the case as part of its investigation into the death of Chang, a former journalist. Records show he died of cerebral hemorrhage on Oct. 5, 1975.
``We have interviewed some 120 people over one-and-a-half years, but have yet to find the details of Chang’s death or who masterminded the People’s Revolutionary Party case,’’ Kim Jun-kon said, due partly to lack of time.
The commission is set to dissolve on Sept. 16 after two years of operation.
Widows of the five men executed in 1975 and activists who supported them were also at the press conference.
``What the commission found is almost identical to what we have known all along,’’ said Mun Jung-hyun, a Catholic priest.
Lee Young-kyo, widow of Ha Jae-wan, said, ``Even after my husband was executed, I was followed by investigators everywhere for decades. May history never repeat itself.’’
By Seo Soo-min Staff Reporter
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