[Newsmaker] Man claiming wrongful conviction in Hweaseong murder to file for retrial

A 52-year-old man surnamed Yun who claims he was wrongly imprisoned for the 1988 rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, is seeking a retrial.

Yun’s lawyer Park Joon-young confirmed to The Korea Herald on Thursday that his client will file a petition for retrial in about two weeks’ time.

Park said Yun will undergo forensic hypnosis and lie detector tests next Monday at Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, a procedure which he said Yun and his defense team “actively want.”

“We intend to fully comply with further police assessments to help demonstrate the credibility of Yun’s testimonies,” Park said.

In a Facebook posting Wednesday, Park said the team of lawyers defending Yun has reviewed the prosecution’s probe records from August 1989, including some photos of a crime reenactment.

“The photos show prosecutors watching Yun, who has a weak left leg, reenacting the crime with difficulty,” Park said. “The prosecutors must have suspected something was not right.”

On Oct. 4, Lee Chun-jae, a prime suspect in the serial killings that occurred in Hwaseong between 1986 and 1991, told police he was responsible for the crimes for which Yun was convicted and jailed.

Yun, who received a life sentence, spent 19 1/2 years in prison before he was released on parole in 2009.

Police conducted a third interview of Yun on Wednesday.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)