The defendants of the spy ring “Chungbuk Dongjihoi,” also referred to as “Chungju Spy Ring,” have requested the United Nations (UN) to suspend their trial and asked for asylum in a third country. For the 2 years and 5 months since their indictment, the undertrials have used various means to delay the first trial, including filing for a constitutional review and recusing themselves from the court five times. The spy ground called for the UN when the court dismissed their fifth recusal request, saying it was “clearly aimed to delay the case,” and set their sentencing to Feb. 16.
“Human rights and health rights have been severely jeopardized by prolonged repression,” the spy ring claimed. However, initially detained defendants have since been released after delays in their trials. The accused individuals are charged with forming an underground organization under the direction of North Korean agents in 2017, recruiting local figures to reveal state secrets since then. It is hard to understand what human rights violations they suffered when they played cat and mouse with their trials using the South Korean legal system.
The spy ring has also appealed the the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to organize and send a fact-finding mission to investigate the fabrication of the case, which is highly unlikely to be accepted. The office does not even have the authority to intervene in member state trials. One cannot help but think the members are making every possible effort to undermine the trial expected to sentence to a severe punishment.
The defense lawyers in the case include people from the civil defense. While the accused spies filed the paper to the UN, it is possible civil law attorney assisted them. Recently, at the Jeju spy group case represented by a civil lawyer, accused members walked out of their first trial just 25 minutes later. The lawyer is the same lawyer who had defended the “Wang Jae-san” case in 2011 and came under dispute for urging a key witness the right to remain silent. Judges should no longer be fooled around by civil lawyers trifling trials and their supercilious behavior.
