Kim Jae-gyu, former director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, appears in court. The Kyunghyang Shinmun file photo

The Supreme Court has upheld the decision to open a retrial for Kim Jae-gyu, former director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), who was executed 45 years ago for the assassination of former President Park Chung-hee on October 26, 1979.

On May 13, the Supreme Court dismissed the prosecution’s appeal against the Seoul High Court's decision to grant a retrial. Back on February 29, the Seoul High Court ruled in favor of a retrial for Kim’s case involving charges of murder with intent to rebel. This comes five years after Kim’s family filed for retrial and 45 years after his execution on May 24, 1980.

In deciding to retry the case, the Seoul High Court found that the evidence and testimonies presented in court supported the harsh treatment Kim suffered. “The record establishes that the investigators beat and electrocuted Kim for several days while investigating him,” the court said, noting that this “constitutes assault and harsh treatment of the accused by a person performing habeas corpus duties, which falls under the crime of assault and harsh treatment in Article 124 of the Criminal Code.”

Although this is the second attempt at a retrial since the first one in 1980, the court emphasized the need to reconsider grounds that were not properly addressed in the past. The judges concluded that “there was sufficient cause for retrial, as it had been proven that a judicial police officer involved in the investigation committed criminal acts related to the case, but due to the statute of limitations, no conviction could be pursued.”

The prosecution filed an immediate appeal just six days after the Seoul High Court's decision. “In light of the gravity and historical significance of the case, it was deemed appropriate to seek the Supreme Court's judgment on whether to initiate a retrial,” the prosecution said at the time, but the Supreme Court rejected the appeal.

Kim was convicted in a military court in December 1979 for assassinating former President Park and Cha Ji-cheol, head of the presidential security service, on October 26 of that year. The death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in May 1980, and Kim was executed just four days later.