![Pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon, Sarangjeil Church, attends the warrant deliberation held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on the morning of January 2, last year, answering questions from reporters. [연합뉴스]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/news/component/htmlphoto_mmdata/202102/10/cdff0e68-8c22-4b26-a4e8-a0e5684686de.jpg?w=560&ssl=1)
Pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon, Sarangjeil Church, attends the warrant deliberation held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on the morning of January 2, last year, answering questions from reporters. [연합뉴스]
The National Human Rights Commission (HRC) judged that the police’s handcuffing and escort of Pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon Sarangjeil Church’s warrant was infringing upon his physical freedom.
The Human Rights Commission announced on the 10th that it admitted some human rights violations in the complaint against the former pastor as a victim, and recommended that the Commissioner of the National Police Agency amend the order of the Police Agency on the use of handcuffs and posers when escorting suspects.
Pastor Jeon was investigated by an investigative agency on charges of leading a large-scale assembly of conservative groups in Gwanghwamun in October 2019. The police applied for an arrest warrant, and the former pastor was subjected to a substantive examination of the warrant in January of last year. The court dismissed the arrest warrant for the former pastor.
Pastor Jeon said, “I voluntarily attended the police station and voluntarily participated in the warrant substantive examination. After the examination, even though a strong protest was made in the absence of lawyers, the police handcuffed both hands and escorted them to the detention center.”
The police said, “In accordance with the convoy rules and regulations, the former pastor was handcuffed and handcuffs were used to minimize human rights violations.” “The reason for requesting a detention warrant included’fleeing concerns’, It will be” he refuted.
In this regard, the Human Rights Commission said, “Considering that the pastor had been living in the church house for 20 years at the time, it is not reasonable to think that the residence was unknown.” “The former pastor voluntarily attended the warrant examination, and without much resistance to wearing handcuffs. In light of the agreement, it is difficult to say that there is a fear of escape.”
He also pointed out that “in many circumstances, wearing handcuffs in a situation where it does not seem that there is a particular problem in escorting past pastors without wearing handcuffs, which violates the constitutional freedom of the body by exercising excessive public power.”
However, regarding the allegation that he infringed on the moral rights of the former pastor due to the report of being in handcuffs, he said, “It happened in an unavoidable situation and was made outside the control of the police.”
In order to prevent recurrence of similar cases, the Human Rights Commission recommended that employees of the police station conduct job training and revised the rules for attracting suspects and convoys at discretion.
Reporter Na Unchae [email protected]