Rep. Kwon Hyang-yeop of the Democratic Party of Korea [provided by the lawmaker's office]
Rep. Kwon Hyang-yeop of the Democratic Party of Korea [provided by the lawmaker's office]

Rep. Kwon Hyang-yeop of the Democratic Party of Korea, who represents the South Jeolla Province constituency of Suncheon, Gwangyang, Gokseong and Gurye, said Friday she had introduced a bill to expand who may file retrial requests in state violence cases.

Under current law, Kwon said, a spouse, lineal relative or sibling may request a retrial when a person convicted of a crime has died or is mentally incapacitated.

In cases involving the mass killing of civilians or serious human rights abuses under the Framework Act on Settling Past Incidents for Truth and Reconciliation, however, investigations often take so long that by the time the truth comes to light, no eligible petitioner remains — leaving victims' families with no legal avenue for redress.

In one documented case, families of victims killed in the 1948 Yeosu-Suncheon Oct. 19 Incident — sentenced to prison for violating a proclamation order and later executed without legal process by counterintelligence units — filed for retrials, only to have the court reject their petitions. The victims had no spouses or children, and their parents and siblings had all died; the petitioners, who were the victims' nephews and nieces, did not qualify as "spouse, lineal relative or sibling" under current law.

The victims' families then filed a constitutional complaint, and the Constitutional Court ruled in June that the existing provision, as applied to state violence cases, violated the constitutional right to trial and was incompatible with the Constitution.

The bill would allow collateral relatives within the fourth degree of kinship to file retrial requests in state violence cases — including those involving the Yeosu-Suncheon incident — covered under the Framework Act on Settling Past Incidents for Truth and Reconciliation.

"The door to retrial requests must be widened so that the rights and honor of state violence victims can be genuinely restored," Kwon said.


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