The court handed out verdicts in two prominent cases Friday - one involving an American citizen charged with murder and the other a former prime minister charged with corruption — and both deserve credit for establishing justice, which is sometimes tricky.
The first case involves Arthur Patterson, a 36-year-old American who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murdering a Korean college student in Seoul 19 years ago.
As seen by the long years since Cho Choong-pil, then 22, was brutally stabbed to death, there have been many twists in the investigation and trial of the case, for which the nation’s judiciary system could not avoid criticism.
Originally, the prosecution charged Edward Lee, who was with Patterson in the bathroom of a Burger King restaurant, although both accused each other of making the brutal attack against Cho. Patterson was charged only with minor offences including destruction of evidence.
But Lee, who had been sentenced to life in prison by the lower courts, was acquitted by the Supreme Court due to lack of evidence, and Patterson, who received an 18-month term, was released in a special amnesty.
It was only after a film portraying the murder rekindled public interest in the case in 2009 that the prosecution reopened the investigation, which resulted in the extradition of Patterson last September. And though belated, he was given due punishment, which as Cho’s mother said, will make his son feel a little at ease.
In the eyes of the law, the court ruling on former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo should be welcomed too. Convicted on a charge of receiving 30 million won ($27,000) in illegal funds from Sung Woan-jong, a business tycoon, Lee received an eight-month term, which was suspended for two years.
The ruling is based on testimonies the tycoon left before he committed suicide last April and other circumstantial evidence, including testimonies from the tycoon’s driver and secretary.
But the former prime minister’s insistence that he is innocent and that he plans to appeal the ruling leave a bitter taste. When the scandal broke out, Lee said that he did not know Sung well, which was shown to be a bare-faced lie by, among other things, records of hundreds of previous telephone conversations between the two of them.
Now it would be better for Lee to admit his wrongdoing, apologize to the public, not least his constituents, and resign from his parliamentary seat. His decision to not seek reelection in the April 13 election is hardly sufficient.
