S. Korea Court Overturns Ex-President’s Death Sentence

A South Korean appeals court today overturned the death sentence of disgraced former President Chun Doo Hwan and slashed five years from the sentence of his childhood friend and successor, Roh Tae Woo.

Chun’s sentence was reduced from death to life in prison, and Roh’s from 22 1/2 years to 17 years in prison, according to South Korean state TV.

The appeals court verdict came as little surprise, as executions are rare in South Korea and the public expected some kind of clemency for the two former presidents.

“Many Koreans believe that putting too severe a penalty on these people does not help solve problems, it only creates future problems,” said Lee Han Koo, president of the Daewoo Economic Research Institute.

After an unprecedented examination of some of the darkest episodes in South Korean history, Chun and Roh were convicted in August of having masterminded a “creeping coup” that began with an army mutiny in 1979 and ended with the massacre of hundreds of demonstrators in the southwestern city of Kwangju in 1980.

The two presidents also were convicted of bribery, and the lower court ordered the confiscation of $631 million in an illegal political slush fund.

In the latest twist in Seoul’s “trial of the century,” the appeals court judges found that Chun’s role in building the South Korean economic juggernaut of the 1980s as well as his peaceful hand-over of power to Roh justified a commutation of his death sentence, the Korea Broadcasting System reported.

The appellate panel also reduced the sentences of 12 of the 13 generals convicted along with the two presidents.

The court was expected to rule later today on appeals filed by five of South Korea’s top businessmen, convicted on bribery charges, as well as by a number of former presidential aides and bodyguards.

It has been widely expected that the punishments will be reduced for the businessmen, who maintain that the payments they made to the presidents were not bribes but political contributions.

The two presidents can appeal again to South Korea’s Supreme Court and then can ask President Kim Young Sam for clemency.

Katsumi Sato, president of the Modern Korea Research Institute in Tokyo, said reduced sentences are a political necessity now, because South Korean internal political divisions are viewed as dangerous in light of what is seen as a heightened military threat from North Korea.

Moreover, President Kim faces an election a year from now and could find it difficult to unite South Korea’s conservatives if he is seen as being too harsh on the former presidents, Sato said.