Jeju District Prosecutors' Office: "'4·3 Incident Ex Officio Retrial' Expanded to General Trials... Regional Discussions Begin"

4.3 Peace Park, Bonggae-dong, Jeju-si Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The first discussion was held to expand the ex officio retrial requests for general trial convicts of the Jeju 4·3 Incident.

On the afternoon of the 23rd, the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office held a meeting with organizations related to Jeju 4·3 to discuss expanding the ex officio retrial requests from convicts of military trials to those of general trials. This is a follow-up measure after the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office announced on the 10th that they would expand ex officio retrial requests to convicts sentenced in general trials during the 4·3 Incident.

On this day, the prosecution, Jeju Province, and organizations related to 4·3 agreed to establish a practical consultation system to discuss detailed matters. The detailed matters to be discussed in the practical consultation include verifying personal information of general trial convicts, identifying target judgments, and preparing retrial requests.

Military trial convicts who became eligible for ex officio retrial requests due to the legal amendment in February last year were listed in the order book of the High Military Court from 1948 to 1949. Therefore, ex officio retrials must clearly identify the subjects by locating individuals recorded in the military court order book in the family register, but in the case of general trials, it is necessary to specify the convict’s judgment, secure the judgment documents and investigation records such as trial transcripts, and restore litigation records.

Lee Geunsu, head of the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office, stated, "We will do our best to fulfill the prosecution’s fundamental role of protecting human rights and realizing justice by sequentially filing ex officio retrial requests for general trial convicts as well," adding, "We will listen to the practical opinions of experts related to 4·3 and further strengthen communication and cooperation with related organizations."

The 4·3 Incident refers to the event in which civilians were sacrificed during armed clashes and suppression operations between the armed forces of the South Korean Labor Party and government troops over 7 years and 7 months, from the shooting incident at the March 1st Independence Movement Day ceremony in 1947 until the lifting of the Hallasan curfew on September 21, 1954. It is tentatively reported that between 14,000 and 30,000 people were killed or went missing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.