Professor Park Yu-ha, who published ‘Comfort Women of the Empire’, found not guilty after 8 years

by times news cr

2024-04-24 19:13:33

Professor Yuha Park. Newsis

Professor Emeritus Park Yu-ha of Sejong University, who was indicted on charges of defaming the comfort women victims by publishing ‘Comfort Women of the Empire’, a controversial book that distorted the history of comfort women, was found not guilty.

According to the legal community on the 24th, the prosecution did not re-appeal within the deadline regarding the not guilty verdict that the 8th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court sentenced Professor Park on the 12th. Accordingly, Professor Park, who was indicted in December 2015, was confirmed not guilty after about 8 years and 4 months.

Professor Park was put on trial on charges of defaming the victims by stating in a book published in August 2013 that the comfort women for the Japanese military were ‘comrades’ who fought the war together with the Japanese military and that they were not forcibly taken by the Japanese military. The first trial court found him not guilty on the grounds that there was no intention to defame him, saying, “The phrase in question cannot be considered to be a written statement of specific facts.” However, the appellate court sentenced him to a fine of 10 million won, saying, “11 of the contents of the book contained false information.”

In October of last year, the Supreme Court ruled that “special cases, such as violating basic research ethics, being the result of conduct that seriously deviates from the scope of what is normally acceptable in the field and cannot be considered an academic process, or infringing on the rights of others through expressions unrelated to the topic or context,” He overturned the original decision and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court, saying, “If there are no circumstances, it is in principle a legitimate act for academic research.”

On the 12th, the cassation and remand trial court said, “At the core of the conflict between Korea and Japan is the issue of Korean comfort women for the Japanese military, and that a desirable relationship between Korea and Japan cannot be established without resolving this issue, and published the results of a study to resolve the issue.” “The book in this case appears to be an academic expression that is an extension of the above research,” he said, declaring Professor Park not guilty.

On the 13th, a day after the cassation and remand trial, Professor Park posted part of the cassation and remand judgment on his Facebook page and said, “I obtained the judgment yesterday, but I was only able to read it today,” adding, “It took nearly 10 years to get this reading, which is so obvious.” He said.

Jo Hye-sun, Donga.com reporter [email protected]

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2024-04-24 19:13:33

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