NHRCK Referred Five Police Officers to Prosecution for Their Acts of Torture
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) viewed that acts of torture took place at a Seoul police station against suspects and thus requested the prosecution to investigate into the five police officers for their alleged involvement in torture, and recommended the National Police Agency conduct a full-scale investigation into the police station and set up preventive measures.
Mr. Lee (45) filed a complaint to the NHRCK against the police station in May, insisting that he was tortured into confessing his crime. The suspect claimed that he was gagged and his face was wrapped in Scotch tape.
The NHRCK, based on its basic investigation, viewed that it is highly likely that the torture occurred as blind spots of the CCTV cameras were found in the office, and the victims maintained consistency in their statement on where the torture took place, the name of the officers and types of the torture. The NHRCK further received accounts through interviews with 32 people who had been transferred to a detention center after questioning at the police station from August 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010.
The respondents (police) denied the allegations of physical abuse or harsh treatment during the interrogation, while admitting yelling at the suspects not to tell lies and twisting their arms to cuff them.
The NHRCK conducted complete enumeration on the victims, which focused on the possibility of conspiracy among the suspects. The investigation found that the police officers tortured the suspects in a vehicle transporting them to the police station. In addition, the suspects were tortured during an investigation on theft charges, with the goal of extracting confessions about accomplices and other crimes.
The NHRCK also obtained work logs for protection officers at the time the suspects were brought into the detention center, as well as other evidence of torture through medical supply registers.
The NHRCK viewed that torture took place in the vehicle and the blind spot of the police office during the investigation based on the investigation result.
Therefore, the Commission referred the five police officers to the prosecution, accusing them of having illegally tortured suspects by employing inhumane methods to coerce confessions from them, and recommended the National Police Agency conduct a full-scale investigation into the police station in order to set up appropriate disciplinary actions and preventive measures.
