The Supreme Court has finalized a decision to retry the 1968 conviction of the late composer Yun Isang for pro-North Korea activities, sources said Tuesday.
The decision is expected to expedite the retrial for the high-profile composer, who was accused of spying and pro-North Korean activities as part of the far-reaching espionage accusations made by the then Park Chung-hee government in 1967 against about 200 Korean artists, residents and students based in Europe.
Yun (1917-1995), who was living in Germany at that time, was repatriated, convicted of violating the National Security Act and sentenced to 10 추천 years in prison, although the espionage charge was cleared. Yun was released after serving two years in jail, thanks to international petitions on his behalf.
In 2006, a legacy redress committee restored the honor of Yun and others by concluding that the then Park government had exaggerated the large-scale espionage accusations for political purposes.
The committee found that South Korean intelligence agents in Germany lured Yun to the Korean embassy for repatriation by deceiving him.
In May last year, the Seoul High Court decided to revisit the ruling against Yun in response to a retrial request filed by the composer’s bereaved family three years earlier, Since then, prosecutors had appealed the court decision.
On Monday, the top court dismissed the prosecution appeal, finalizing the decision by the high court to retry Yun’s case, the sources said.
The high court cited illegalities in the procedures used to secure custody of and detain Yun as the basis for its decision for a retrial.
In its appeal, prosecutors claimed that the alleged illegalities were not clearly proven, but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, finalizing the high court’s retrial decision.
