Christopher Ahn, a Korean-American, who is currently being tried by the US judicial authorities for participating in the case, said in a statement recently filed with the court through a group of lawyers.
In the six-page statement submitted by Ahn’s lawyers to the federal district court in Los Angeles, California, USA on the 22nd (local time), the case was “I want to asylum in the case of a kidnapping.” It was planned by’Free Shipbuilding’ at the request.
Prior to the incident, Mr. A conveyed his intention to asylum to Free Joseon leader Adrian Hong Chang, as if he was not a voluntary asylum because he could be retaliated against by the North Korean regime in the future, but as a’involuntary asylum’ in which the Free Joseon side kidnaps him. Mr. Ahn explained that he had requested to decorate the situation, but he said he had no idea of this situation until he arrived in Madrid on February 22, 2019, on the day of the incident. Ahn, after hearing an explanation of his own sort, decided to help Mr. A’s asylum with other members of Free Joseon. In his affidavit, Mr. Ahn said, “Because North Korea is a’monitoring state’, the embassy is also covered with surveillance cameras. He explained that the members of Free Joseon also armed themselves with’fake guns’ and entered the embassy to make this camouflage kidnapping look real. However, Ahn himself said that he had suffered a fracture in his right hand at the time, so he did not even carry this fake gun.
Ahn also repeatedly suggested that there was an internal helper, saying, “When I arrived at the embassy, the staff opened the door and let me in.” The contents of Ahn’s statement are in line with what the Free Joseon side said after the incident that “we went after receiving an invitation from a North Korean embassy official.”
The time when the Free Joseon party arrived at the North Korean embassy was about 4:40 pm local time. The free Joseon party inside the embassy bound the employees and tried to “kidnap” Mr. A as planned, but in the meantime, a female employee walked out of the embassy through the window on the second floor and the situation reversed. Mr. Ahn explained, “No one saw the female employee exiting the embassy at the time.”
The female employee reported to the local police that “there was a commotion at the embassy,” and within an hour after that, the embassy doorbell rang. According to Ahn, members of Free Korea at the time pretended to be embassy staff and sent the police back, but the phone in the office kept ringing, and the embassy staff who were tied to it gradually fell into’panic’.
And after a few hours again, Mr. Hong said to Mr. A, “Mr. A changed his mind. They said they would not escape from North Korea.” Prior to this, Mr. Ahn said, “We weren’t together” while Hong had conversations with other people. According to Ahn’s statement, it seems that Hong and others persuaded Mr. A’s asylum until the end.
Ahn and Hong and the rest of the Free Joseon party then left the embassy by sharing the embassy car and Uber car at around 9:4 pm.
Ahn was arrested and prosecuted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Los Angeles at the request of the Spanish authorities in April 2019, two months after the incident, but was released after paying a bail of $1.3 million (about 1.45 billion won) in July of the same year. It is currently being tried under house arrest.
The Spanish side is demanding that Ahn be repatriated, but Ahn’s defense team refuses, saying, “It could pose a threat to life” if the recruits were handed over to Spain.
In fact, Ahn returned to the United States with Hong and explained the incident to FBI officials, and soon after, it was reported that the FBI also warned that “there is reliable information that North Korean agents are aiming.” For this reason, when the FBI arrested Ahn, it was observed that it was for his personal safety.
Ahn was the only person arrested among the members of Free Joseon who participated in the raid on the North Korean embassy at the time. The lawyers insist that the case was made at the request of a North Korean diplomat Mr. A, so that no crimes related to illegal acts such as assault, robbery, or injury have been established for Ahn.
In an affidavit, Mr. Ahn told the fact that he suffered a hand injury (broken right hand) at the time of the incident, “I did not bind the embassy staff”, “I didn’t take a weapon (fake gun)” “We didn’t hurt anyone.” Again, it seems to emphasize this point. He also claimed that the’resistance’ of the embassy staff at the time was due to North Korean surveillance cameras.
Regarding his past service in the US Marine Corps, Ahn said, “I have never received any special combat training other than basic training after joining the Marine Corps. Media reports that I have combat expertise are different from the facts,” he said. “Hong took me as a measure to calm down when a North Korean diplomat panic.”
Ahn served as a US Marine Corps member from 2000 to 6 years. In particular, it is known that he was dispatched to Iraq from 2005 to 6 and worked as an analyst at Fallujah detention facilities. “I was engaged in the mission of taking care of people in extreme tension in the Marine Corps and ensuring their safety,” said Ahn. “So even in Free Joseon, I often took on the role of calming communicators and people.”
Ahn, who was usually interested in the issue of North Korean human rights, was introduced by a friend in 2009 to meet Hong, who was active as a North Korean human rights activist, and worked with them to help North Korean defectors. Mr. Ahn also mentioned, “In my experience, there is no way that Mr. Hong forced someone to escape from North Korea or caused physical pain against the intention of the North Korean defector.”
Hong, the leader of Free Joseon, is known to have met a representative of a human rights group helping North Korean defectors in Japan before and after the North Korean embassy incident, but the whereabouts are currently unknown.
(Seoul = News 1)
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