The retrial of former KCIA Director Kim Jae-kyu, who was sentenced to death for his role in the October 26 Incident, is set to begin. On the 19th, the Criminal Division 7 of the Seoul High Court decided to initiate the retrial of the case. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The retrial of former spy chief Kim Jae-gyu, who was sentenced to death for assassinating former President Park Chung-hee in 1979 and executed the following year, will begin next month, judicial officials said Wednesday.
The Seoul High Court, which approved the retrial of Kim in February this year, plans to hold the first hearing of the case at 11 a.m. July 16, they said.
It came about five years after a family member of Kim requested a retrial of Kim’s case, seeking that an insurrection charge on him be cleared.
Kim, the former head of the now-defunct Korean Central Intelligence Agency, assassinated Park and Cha Ji-cheol, head of the Presidential Security Service, on Oct. 26, 1979, during a private dinner party and was sentenced to death and executed in May 1980.
The court said in its February decision that it found grounds for a retrial after determining that investigators had tortured and assaulted Kim during the investigation. The prosecution appealed the court’s decision, but the Supreme Court dismissed the prosecution’s request May 13.
(Yonhap)
