Republic of Korea: Human Rights Activist Arrested in Apparent Political Ploy
Event- Country
- Korea, Republic of
- Initial Date
- Jul 16, 2015
- Event Description
Advocates say Park Rae-gun isn't really a flight risk, and his arrest may be intended to intimidate activists At around midnight on July 16, messages began going up on Facebook about the issuance of a preliminary arrest warrant for Park Rae-gun, the 54-year-old director of the Center of Human Rights. A member of the standing committee for the group April 16 Alliance, which has been calling for an investigation into the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking, Park had been under investigation for three months on charges of Assembly and Demonstration Act violation and obstruction of special official duties for his role in organizing four memorial rallies around Jongno Police Station in Seoul, which had previously requested the preliminary arrest warrant application from prosecutors after completing a search and seizure and calling Park in for questioning. "While our search and seizure did not turn up much relevant evidence, it appears that evidence was destroyed," the police said, adding that it had "concerns about additional evidence destruction and a possible flight risk." Lee Seung-gyu, a warrant judge at Seoul Central District Court, agreed to the request, noting the flight risk and the "substantiation of some charges." Park's arrest is his fourth since joining the campaign for human rights two decades ago. Three of his arrests came while opposing the US military base at Daechu Village in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province and working with a pan-national countermeasures committee in the wake of the 2009 Yongsan tragedy, in which five demolition protesters and one police officer lost their lives. Poet Song Gyeong-dong decried the arrest in a Facebook message. "A country that arrests human rights activists . . . first Daechu Village, Yongsan, and the Hope Buses, and now Sewol protestors are being hauled in and standing side by side in the defendants' box," he wrote. Park entered the Yonsei University department of Korean literature in 1981 with dreams of becoming a novelist. He took part in the student and labor movements while in school, but his decision to become a human rights activist in earnest came after his younger brother Rae-jeon, then president of the Soongsil University College of Liberal Arts student council, committed suicide by self-immolation in 1988 to protest the Roh Tae-woo administration. He has been one of the country's leading campaigners, working in an ever-broader range of human rights areas for the release of conscientious objectors, the eradication of torture, the investigation of suspicious politically related deaths, residents' rights, the minimum wage, and irregular workers. Park's attorneys claim that he only organized the rallies and did not plan or direct any illegal actions. They also argue that the police themselves provoked clashes by spraying protesters with from water mixed with pava (an incapacitant spray) from water cannons after they were already agitated over the erection of vehicle barricades. The decision to arrest a rally organizer three months after the fact - without any attempts to flee - is seen as unusual. Another arrest warrant request for Kim Hye-jin, a member of the April 16 Alliance organizing committee, was rejected by the court. "The fact that they issued a warrant even though[Park] had participated willingly in the questioning and there was no real flight risk shows that they were thinking more about the political and social situation rather than considering the legal aspect," said Kim Deok-jin, secretary-general of the Catholic Human Rights Committee. Yeom Hyeong-guk, one of the attorneys representing Park, noted the judge had given explicit orders not to "interpret the findings in political terms" when the warrant review was started on July 16. But according to Myeong Sook of the human rights group Sarangbang, the decision "turned out to be political in the end." Kim Nam-ju, an attorney who met with Park at the Jongno Police Station detention center on July 17, quoted him as saying he had "seen this kind of suppression coming once[former Minister of Justice] Hwang Kyo-ahn became Prime Minister." The April 16 Alliance said it plans to carry out a signature campaign to call for Park's release and "alert the country and international community to the illegitimacy of the arrest." UPDATE: 27/ August/ 2015 The government's criminalization of a crack about Pres. Park's botox Human rights activist Park Rae-gun, who is in jail pending trial on charges of organizing a memorial demonstration for the sinking of the Sewol ferry, now faces another charge: defamation of President Park Geun-hye. During the demonstration, Park Rae-gun is accused of saying, "There are allegations that President Park was taking drugs or getting Botox to beautify her skin. I'd love to confirm those allegations." Park Rae-gun was referring to the seven hours when Park Geun-hye did not appear on Apr. 16, the day of the sinking. Setting aside the question of whether Park Rae-gun's remarks actually constitute defamation, it is truly bizarre to see the current government overreacting and overreaching in its attempt to prevent any mention of the Sewol tragedy. The very fact that Park was arrested last month smacks of a "compulsory quarantine" aimed at stonewalling efforts to learn the truth about the Sewol tragedy. As the director of People Focused on Human Rights and a member of the standing operating committee for People's Solidarity for the Promise of April 16, Park has joined bereaved Sewol families in taking the lead in these efforts. After he organized the memorial demonstration, the police launched a compulsory investigation into charges that he instigated illegal and violent behavior, carrying out a raid and calling him in for questioning. While this was clear intimidation, Park assented to the questioning in good faith. Since he did not flee and since there is no evidence for him to hide or destroy, the only conclusion is that he should not have been arrested. If any evidence were necessary, the pictures and video shot by the police during the demonstration ought to have been enough. Despite this, the police and prosecutors put Park in jail three months after the demonstration was held. We cannot help but suspect that this was less from judicial necessity than from political necessity - the necessity of locking him up and muzzling him. After Park's arrest, a "collective statement" was released containing individual messages from 4,820 activists with civic groups and ordinary people calling for Park's release. The statement is a protest against such barbaric and backward behavior. But apparently the prosecutors were unfazed, since they added defamation to the list of charges against Park. This only increase suspicions about what could possibly be so embarrassing that the administration feels compelled to keep muzzling Park. The prosecutors also appear to be meting out harsh retribution on someone else's behalf. Even so, they cannot keep everyone quiet indefinitely. It is time to bring these pointless efforts to an end and to release Park.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Administrative Harassment
- Intimidation and Threats
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly
- Right to Protest
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Active
- Event Location
Latitude: 35.90775699999999
Longitude: 127.766922
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 16 July 2015, Lee Seung-gyu, a warrant judge at Seoul Central District Court, agreed to issued arrest warrant application against Mr Park Rae-gun, pursuant to the request made by Jongno Police Station in Seoul. Park Rae gun, 54-year-old is the director of the Center of Human Rights. A member of the standing committee for the group April 16 Alliance, which has been calling for an investigation into the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking, Park had been under investigation for three months on charges of Assembly and Demonstration Act violation and obstruction of special official duties for his role in organizing four memorial rallies around