A South Korean man who spent 20 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit has acquitted his name in court after one of the country’s most notorious serial killers committed the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl. 1988 known.
SEOUL, South Korea – A South Korean man who spent 20 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit has acquitted his name in court after one of the country’s most notorious serial killers committed the rape and murder. a 13-year-old in 1988. one year old girl.
Yoon Seong-yeo, 53, was sentenced to life in prison and was released on parole in 2009. He listened softly as Judge Park Jeong-je of the Suwon District Court apologized on behalf of the judiciary on Thursday for causing him “huge physical and mental pain ”because of wrong judgment.
“The defendant is innocent,” Park announced. Yoon’s acquittal provoked thunderous applause from his followers at the gallery.
“I hope no one ever has to go through what I’ve been through and that all cases get a fair trial,” Yoon told reporters after the verdict.
Yoon, then a 22-year-old mechanic in the farming village of Hwaseong, was arrested in July 1989 after police charged him with the rape and murder of the girl in September 1988.
Between 1986 and 1991, 10 women of various ages were brutally raped and murdered in the Hwaseong area, and Yoon was arrested when police faced immense public criticism for failing to identify the serial killer.
Police had concluded that Yoon had committed a copycat crime. Yoon pleaded not guilty, saying police investigators forced him to confess to a crime he didn’t commit. The Suwon District Court gave him a life sentence in October 1989, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in May 1990.
It appeared that the Hwaseong murders would go unsolved until police announced last year that Lee Chun-jae, a man serving a life sentence for the 1994 murder of his sister-in-law, confessed to the murders, including that of the 13-year-old girl. Yoon filed for a retrial in November last year.
Lee testified at Yoon’s retrial last month and repeated his confession.
The Hwaseong murders inspired the 2003 film “Memories of Murder”, the breakthrough work of director Bong Joon Ho, who won this year’s Academy Award for Best Picture for his dark comedy thriller “Parasite”.