THE former president of South Korea, Chun Doo Hwan, was sentenced to death in Seoul yesterday for his part in the military coup of 1979. His successor, Roh Te Woo, 13 former generals and nine of the country's leading businessmen also received prison terms of up to 22 years.
Their troubles began at the end of last year when first Roh and later Chun were indicted for accepting bribes, totalling hundreds of millions of pounds, during their periods in office from 1980 to 1993. They were charged subsequently with plotting the coup of December 1979, which brought Chun to power, and with the massacre of student pro democracy demonstrators in the city of Kwangju in May 1980.
Both men were convicted of mutiny, treason and corruption, although Chun was acquitted of murder because it could not be proven that he gave the direct order to shoot the Kwangju demonstrators. Roh was sentenced to 22 1/2 years, less than the life sentence sought by the prosecution. Thirteen of their former generals got sentences of four to 10 years' several former government officials and nine businessmen, including the chairmen of the mighty Samsung and Daewoo groups, received lesser jail terms.
In the 5 1/2 month trial there were 34 separate sessions, the judge's verdict was 200 pages long and a truck had to be used to transport the 160,000 pages of evidence from the prosecutor's office to the Seoul District Court. Ten generals, one lieutenant general, two major generals and three brigadier generals were among the defendants. Tickets to the small public gallery changed hands for as much as 1 million won (£800) each on the black market. The decision to bring the former presidents to justice was taken by President Kim Young Sam, Roh's successor and protege, who is South Korea's first civilian leader for 32 years. He spoke of it as a crusade, "to show the people that justice, truth and the law are vividly alive in this land". However, until a few weeks before, he had insisted that there should be no witch hunt against the perpetrators of Kwanu.
It turned out to be an inspired U turn. Although the spirit behind the convictions is undoubtedly just, President Kim has had to cut a few legal corners to achieve them. A special bill was passed allowing the agents of the coup and massacre to be prosecuted.
The lawyers of Chun and Rob seized on this dubious legislation to mount a fierce defence. They denounced the trial as "a political circus and, although the South Korean judiciary is officially independent, there was never any doubt about the outcome.
President Kim, no doubt, will find it useful to pardon or parole his predecessors before his term expires in early 1998. He may consider it prudent; to execute former presidents who failed to live up to the standards of their office would set a drastic, alarming precedent.