Ulsan District Prosecutors" Office indicted two prison officers without physical restraint for accidental homicide (12-30-2002)
The Ulsan District Prosecutors" Office informed to the National Human Rights Commission (president, Kim Chang-kuk) that the prosecution would indict two prison officers without physical restraint for accidental homicide since a sick prisoner had died after they had neglected him for three days.
However, Ulsan prosecution clarified that they closed the secret examination, as they had found no evidence supporting the allegations that had been made by the NHRC, the bereaved family of the victim, and human rights organizations.
On Dec. 28, in 2001, the NHRC requested the General Prosecutor to investigate the case that an involving an inmate, Ku, Seung-woo who had died in the Ulsan Detention House. The deceased, Ku, had been was arrested at his house on Nov. 16, 2001, under in the suspicion that he had defaulted on a fine. He was transferred to the Ulsan District Prosecutors" Office, and then taken to the Ulsan Detention House, at 12:30 p.m., Nov. 17. After undergoing a physical examination, he was sent to the ward for the elderly. The next morning, at 11 a.m., he was moved again to the ward for the sick.
According to the Prosecution"s investigation, when he was arrested, even though he was drunk and crippled due to arthritis, he could speak and had no bruises on his body. However, Ku had a pseudo-epileptic fit and began to go to bathroom from 3:30 p.m. on the 17th. Finally, he got excrement on his pants and vomited blood. After that, he began to show signs of mental derangement, such as murmuring alone.
In this situation, the prison officers, Hong and Park, made a hasty conclusion that Ku was an epileptic. So they left him alone without first-aid treatment for several hours, even though they had been briefed from other officers on Ku"s symptoms. However, his body temperature began to fall and his pulse became weak from the evening of the 18th. He was sent to the hospital, but died at 3 a.m. on the 19th.
