By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
A 74-year-old man who spent 15 years behind bars for murder charges was cleared of wrongdoing 36 years after he was tried and imprisoned.
Jeong Won-seop, shed tears of joy after the Chuncheon District Court issued a ``not guilty'' verdict Friday. The ruling restored his honor 36 years after he was branded as a murderer and 10 years after he first sought a review of his case in 1999.
In 1972, Jeong, 38 years old at that time, was indicted on charges of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl, the daughter of a senior police officer in Chuncheon, and strangling her to death in a farm field in Gangwon Province.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and although he claimed that police officers had tortured him into a false confession and fabricated evidence, a high court and the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. He served 15 years of his sentence before being paroled in 1987.
He became a pastor after moving to North Jeolla Province in 1988 and has worked for churches ever since.
Jeong's family broke down following his imprisonment and his wife's traffic accident. He asked the Seoul High Court for a retrial of the case in 1999, but the request was rejected. He then asked for help from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in 2005, which recommended in December 2007 that the case be reviewed.
The Chuncheon court said that it is very likely that police officers threatened and tortured Jeong while investigating, and evidence obtained under such unlawful procedures cannot be accepted.
``Those officers were promoted and rewarded despite their wrongdoing, but heaven will serve them justice. But now I want to forgive them,'' Jeong said.
Jeong's wife and son, who have lived apart from him since the case, attended the trial and celebrated the decision. Jeong said he would discuss with his lawyer whether to file for compensation from the state.