This report describes AI’s concern that Park Dong-oon, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for alleged espionage for North Korea, may have been convicted on the basis of confessions made under torture. Park Dong-oon, an employee of the Chindo Myon Agricultural Cooperative, was arrested with several other members of his family in March 1981 and charged with belonging to the “Chindo Permanent Spy Ring”. His family say that members of the family were tortured for 60 days to force them to implicate him in spying for North Korea. Trial witnesses were also allegedly intimidated. Park Dong-oon was originally sentenced to death but this was later commuted; three other family members were sentenced to prison terms of from three and a half to seven years.
