NHRC Finds that Articles 10 (Pursuit of Happiness) and 12 (Personal Liberty, Personal Integrity) of the Constitution were Violated
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a recommendation to detention center officer, Mr. Lee, to take a human rights awareness class held under the aegis of the NHRC regarding the case in which detainee Mr. Yoon (age 22) filed a complaint against Mr. Lee, the Seong-dong Detention Center (SDC) instructor that “While being held in detention, I [Yoon] was beaten by the detention center officer.”
The case came about when detention center inmate Mr. Yoon, now held at Anyang Detention Center, was an inmate at SDC and, while awaiting his hearing in the waiting room at the Northern Branch of Seoul District Court, got in a fight with a group of accomplices to an unrelated case. After the hearing, Yoon returned to SDC and in the process of writing his statement about the above fight in the office of the SDC department in charge of inmates’ appearance in court, an unidentified detention center officer (later confirmed to be Instructor Lee) assaulted Yoon, beating Yoon on the nape of his neck and cheeks for three or four rounds. Thus, Yoon came about to filing a complaint with the NHRC.
In the course of the NHRC investigation, Instructor Lee gave a statement that “the inmate was excited, and in order to regain control, I did, momentarily, hit the nape of his neck 2 times, but it didn’t go beyond that.” However, when statements from other inmates at the scene are put together, it would appear that Instructor Lee had assaulted Yoon over the course of at least three or four rounds of assault such that Yoon was left panting and his face turned white. As a sufferer of chronic kidney problem , Yoon, even while an inmate at SDC, had gone to an outside hospital regularly to receive hemodialysis and when he was at the Seoul District Court waiting room, was wearing clothing indicating his status as a patient.
The NHRC found that Lee’s actions violated articles 10 (pursuit of happiness) and 12 (personal liberty, personal integrity) of the constitution and issued a recommendation for the defendant to receive human rights awareness education in light of the fact that the defendant later admitted to the assault and apologized to the complainant directly.
