Prosecutors confirmed through supplementary investigation that Yang Geun-hyuk's father, an active-duty police officer, destroyed evidence; a family exemption clause bars criminal charges. Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho said the provision warrants review.

Yang Geun-hyuk (center), charged with murder and attempted murder, is transferred from the Gwangju Western Police Station to prosecutors on May 14. [Yonhap]
Yang Geun-hyuk (center), charged with murder and attempted murder, is transferred from the Gwangju Western Police Station to prosecutors on May 14. [Yonhap]

By Yang Geun-hyuk, The Herald Business

It has emerged that the father of Yang Geun-hyuk — the suspect indicted in the so-called Gwangju high school girl murder case — destroyed and discarded evidence related to the crime while Yang was under police investigation. The father, himself an active-duty police officer, cannot be prosecuted under a family exemption clause in the criminal code, prompting Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho to call for a review of the provision.

According to prosecutors Thursday, several adult products — including a sex doll — and a mobile phone that had been at Yang's residence went missing while he was in detention and under investigation before his indictment. Prosecutors confirmed through a supplementary investigation that Yang's father, an active-duty officer, had destroyed and discarded the items. They were unable to file criminal charges, however, because Article 155, Paragraph 4 of the Criminal Act — which governs evidence tampering and family exemptions — states that a relative or cohabiting family member who commits such an offense on behalf of the accused shall not be punished.

After the matter became public, Minister Jeong wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday that "the reality is that it is difficult to immediately impose sanctions even when an active-duty police officer father has destroyed crucial evidence." He explained that "under current law, when a close relative commits evidence tampering, the family exemption clause exempts them from punishment — a recognition, from a judicial standpoint, of the natural human instinct to protect one's own family."

Jeong added that "given that last December, the 'relative theft exemption' — which similarly shielded family members from prosecution for property crimes such as theft and fraud — was abolished to reflect the changing times, there is a need to review whether this exemption also requires reform." He pledged to "do everything possible until the end to ensure that appropriate punishment is handed down for the unjust death of the late Lee Chae-won."

The Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office's Criminal Division 3, led by chief prosecutor Kim Jin-hee, indicted Yang on June 2 on charges including murder in the course of rape under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes. Yang is accused of killing Lee Chae-won, a second-year high school student, on a deserted pedestrian path in Wolge-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, around midnight on May 5. He was arrested the morning of the same day, an arrest warrant was issued May 7, and police transferred the case to prosecutors with Yang in custody.

Police had initially applied a general murder charge under the Criminal Act, as Yang claimed the killing was impulsive. Prosecutors, through their supplementary investigation, determined that the attack was sexually motivated and changed the charge to murder in the course of rape under the special sexual violence law. While a general murder conviction carries a minimum sentence of five years, a conviction for murder in the course of rape is punishable only by death or life imprisonment.

Jeong also addressed this point, saying that "evidence not seized during the police investigation was uncovered during the prosecutors' supplementary investigation, revealing Yang's intent to commit a sex crime, which is why the case was brought to trial not as simple murder but as murder with intent to rape." He added that "while simple murder has a minimum sentence of five years' imprisonment, murder with intent to rape can only be sentenced to death or life imprisonment — the difference in sentencing between the two charges is enormous."


yg@heraldcorp.com