Former President Yoon Suk Yeol. [Seoul Central District Court]
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol. [Seoul Central District Court]

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has dismissed dozens of petitions calling for air conditioning to be installed in the solitary cell where former President Yoon Suk Yeol is held at Seoul Detention Center.

The commission said Tuesday it had dismissed all 104 petitions filed by Yoon's supporters — who expressed concern over human rights violations in his detention — on Feb. 23.

The commission reached the decision on the grounds that Yoon, as the alleged victim, clearly did not wish to have the matter investigated.

The petitions began arriving after Yoon was transferred to Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, in July last year. Supporters repeatedly filed complaints with the commission alleging he was subjected to human rights violations.

Of the 104 petitions received over a two-month period, 80 concerned poor conditions at the correctional facility. The most common request was to install air conditioning in the solitary cell where Yoon is held.

The roughly 6.6-square-meter cell Yoon occupies has no air conditioner, only an electric fan.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice announced May 31 that it would spend 1.2 billion won ($778,000) this year to install cooling systems in inmate living areas at prisons nationwide. The plan centers on adding air conditioners to corridors in housing units that hold inmates vulnerable to heat-related illness, including the elderly, people with disabilities and patients.

Air conditioners in correctional facilities across the country currently operate only in correctional officers' offices and medical wards, while inmate cells are equipped only with electric fans. Concerns have long been raised that the risk of heat-related illness during heat waves is high, compounded by an overcrowding rate of 127 percent, but the push to install cooling systems has repeatedly met with public resistance.


betterj@heraldcorp.com