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A female surnamed Kwon, who was a student at Seoul National University Department of Clothing, worked at a gas discharger manufacturer in Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do, by concealing her educational background. In June 1986, she was brought to the Bucheon Police Station on the charge of forging an official document, her identification card. In the interrogation process, Detective Mun Gui-dong committed sexual violence against her and forced a statement from her in order to identify the whereabouts of wanted persons involved in the May 3 Incheon Incident (a massive demonstration against the dictatorship) . Although Kwon accused Mun of forced indecent acts at the Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office in July 1986, Mun concealed the truth and filed a countercharge against her for defamation and false accusation. The prosecution and public security authorities denied Kwon’s allegation, calling it the “habitual tactics of the radical forces that even employ sex to achieve their goal,” but reluctantly gave in to public opinion calling for fact-finding and a fair investigation into the allegation. However, the authoritarian military regime’s intervention to cover up and whitewash the case eventually resulted in a suspension of prosecution against Mun and the clearance of suspicion of five other police officers in August. In September, a defense council composed of a total of 166 attorneys protested against the decision of the prosecution and applied for a ruling, but their requests were continuously rejected. After the June Democracy Movement of 1987, this case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and the court finally sentenced Mun to five years in prison in 1989, three years after the incident.
After the sexual torture incident was made public, people from all walks of life, including laborers, farmers, low-income dwellers, feminist activist groups, as well as those from political circles and religious organizations, including Buddhists, Protestants and Catholics, along with opposition parties, joined forces to establish the Joint Committee to Stop Torture and Fabrication of Pro-communist Activities. This leaflet was produced by the committee on July 5, 1986, and contains the full text of the indictment sent to the chief of the Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office with the names of Go Yeong-gu and eight others, with detailed descriptions of the sexual violence committed by Mun. These accusers provided detailed information on the process of sexual torture committed by Mun at dawn on June 6 and at night on June 7, 1986 on four pages in the indictment. They argued that the sexual torture was not the wrongdoing of a sexual pervert, but an organized crime committed according to an intentional plan of the police authorities, and asked for all the relevant people to be dealt with in accordance with the law. They also demanded that the government make clear its intention not to hide or whitewash the incident, since the inhumane sexual torture committed by the state authorities was not a one-off, but a repeated and consistent crime. The leaflet features the full text of the indictment and said that a public rally to disclose the torture, sexual torture and fabrication of pro-communist activities by the government, organized by the joint committee, would be held at Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral at 2 p.m. on July 19, 1986 at the bottom of page 4. The leaflet vividly depicts the ugly reality of the power abuse, immorality, and human rights suppression by the military authoritarian government of the Fifth Republic. |
