Retrial of Hwaseong murder case likely to open

Lee Jin-dong, a prosecutor at the Suwon District Prosecution Office, speaks during a press briefing at the district prosecution office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. /Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

A court is likely to hold a retrial to exonerate a man who was allegedly wrongfully convicted of raping and killing a teenage girl, following the prosecution’s consent to the man’s request.

The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office said, Monday, it sent the Suwon District Court its opinion for the need to reopen and retry the case, as new findings show a high likelihood the man, surnamed Yoon, 52, was not the perpetrator of the crime.

Yoon, then 22, was arrested in 1988 for raping and killing a 13-year-old girl at her home in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, and was sentenced to life in prison after admitting to the crime. He later claimed he made a false confession under duress due to torture from police officers, but higher courts did not accept the claim. So he served 19 and a half years in prison until being released in 2009 for good behavior.

Yoon’s request for a retrial came in November after Lee Chun-jae, 56, the prime suspect in at least nine murders in the region between 1986 and 1991, claimed his responsibility for the crime as well. Until his confession, the crime had been considered a copycat murder committed by Yoon. Lee was identified as a prime suspect in the decades-old cold case in September after a fresh DNA test.

According to prosecutors, holding a retrial is appropriate because new evidence proving Yoon’s innocence — Lee’s confession — has been found and they have confirmed the offenses of the original investigators while on duty — beating and mistreating him, including subjecting him to sleep deprivation.

“Most notably, we found that the National Forensic Service’s written appraisals on a hair, which police found at the scene of the crime and confirmed to belong to Yoon, was fabricated,” a prosecutor said in a press briefing at the prosecutors’ office.

Earlier this month, police opened an investigation into seven police officers and one prosecutor who took part in Yoon’s murder case at the time for forging official documents and abusing their power to confine the suspect.