Han Dong-hoon ordered inspections of four death penalty facilities across the country last month.
After the suspension of executions in 1997, only the Seoul Detention Center remained intact.
An on-site inspection is being conducted at the valley of Bongwonsa Temple in Seoul, where Yoo Young-cheol, who bizarrely serially murdered a total of 21 people between September 2003 and July 2004, secretly buried the bodies. In June 2005, the Supreme Court confirmed his death sentence. <한겨레> File photo
Yoo Young-cheol, who had been sentenced to death for murdering 21 people and was being held without execution, was transferred to the Seoul Detention Center. The Ministry of Justice announced on the 25th that correctional authorities transferred Yoo Young-cheol from Daegu Prison to Seoul Detention Center last week. In addition, Jeong Hyeong-gu, who was sentenced to death for shooting a newlywed couple in a car with a shotgun in Samcheok, Gangwon-do in 1999 because they were passing their car while creating dust, was also transferred from Daegu Prison to Seoul Detention Center. The Seoul Detention Center houses other serial killers on death row, including Kang Ho-sun, who killed 10 people, including her wife and mother-in-law, and Jeong Doo-young, who killed 9 women and elderly people. Attention is focused on the reasons why unexecuted death row inmates are transferred to the Seoul Detention Center. An official from the Ministry of Justice only explained that it was a “necessary measure for correctional administration,” but analysts inside and outside the legal community say that the transfer to the Seoul Detention Center, which is equipped with death penalty facilities, was intended to carry out the death penalty. Last month, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon ordered a facility inspection of four correctional institutions with execution facilities, including Seoul Detention Center, Busan Detention Center, Daegu Prison, and Daejeon Prison, but it is said that the Seoul Detention Center was the only place with practically usable death penalty facilities. Minister Han met with reporters at the National Assembly on August 30 and said, “No previous government has explicitly stated that it will not execute the death penalty,” and added, “(The death penalty) is basically a sovereign decision and the death penalty has a criminal policy function.” “It must be decided after carefully considering national laws, sentiments, and domestic and international circumstances,” he said. South Korea is classified as a ‘practical abolitionist of the death penalty’ as it has not carried out any executions since executing 23 people on December 30, 1997. Reporter Jae-ho Lee ph@hani.co.kr
2023-09-25 03:39:48
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