His Excellency Kim Dae-jung
President
Office of the President
Seoul
South Korea

Vienna, 29 October 1999

Your Excellency,

On behalf of the International Press Institute, I would like to raise with you once again the case of Mr. Hong Suk-hyun and the Joongang Ilbo. As you are aware, accused of tax evasion, Mr. Hong is currently in custody awaiting the opening of his trial on November 19.

IPI is concerned that the case against Mr. Hong may be a retaliatory strike against the Joongang Ilbo’s critical coverage of the current government. We trust that Mr. Hong will be tried by an impartial judiciary, allowing both the prosecution and the defence to put forward their arguments in a fair and transparent manner. However, we firmly believe that there is absolutely no necessity to detain Mr. Hong before the court reaches any decision. A fundamental principle of justice demands that all citizens must be considered innocent until proven guilty. Moreover, the prosecutor could not be concerned that the defendant might skip bail, as your country requires all citizens to obtain an exit visa before leaving the country, effectively ensuring that Mr. Hong will not leave the country until this matter is resolved. There can also be no question of covering up evidence as all relevant documents have been seized by the authorities.

While we appreciate that remand is essentially a matter for the courts, we implore you to use your good offices to ask the responsible people if Mr. Hong’s detention is really necessary in the interests on justice. The discrepancies between the tax authority’s public statements and the prosecutor’s indictment indicate that the charges laid against Mr. Hong are considerably lesser than originally indicated by the tax authorities (Two charges of tax evasion as opposed to ten cited by the tax authority; Indicted for evading 2.5 billion won using nine borrowed name accounts as opposed to the tax authority accusation of evading 27.8 billion won using 1,071 borrowed name accounts). Particularly in view of these lesser charges, Mr. Hong’s continued incarceration at such an early stage in the judicial proceedings is highly questionable and we feel it blemishes South Korea’s international reputation.

I thank you for your kind attention and eagerly await your response.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director