College students who distributed leaflets saying "Chun Doo-hwan regime, step down" acquitted after 43 years

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[Financial News] College students who were sentenced to prison for distributing leaflets criticizing the Chun Doo-hwan regime have been acquitted in a retrial 43 years later.
According to the legal community on the 16th, the 18th Single-Judge Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Judge Yun Young-su, recently overturned the original conviction and found two defendants, including a person identified as A, not guilty of violating the Assembly and Demonstration Act.
In April 1983, when they were fourth-year university students, they were accused of producing and distributing 300 leaflets containing nine demands, including the slogan "Chun Doo-hwan fascist regime, step down." The court sentenced each of them to one year in prison in May 1983. They appealed, but the appeal was dismissed in September that year, and the convictions became final.
After they filed for a retrial, the court granted a retrial in November last year.
The court explained, "From the time Chun Doo-hwan and others seized control of the military chain of command through a military insurrection on December 12, 1979, through the Expansion of Martial Law on May 17, 1980, and up to its lifting on January 24 of the following year, their series of acts constituted the crime of insurrection under the Military Criminal Act of the Republic of Korea and the crime of insurrection under the Criminal Act, amounting to the destruction of the constitutional order."
The court went on to say, "Acts that sought to stop or oppose this must be regarded as legitimate acts to protect the existence of the Constitution and the constitutional order, and therefore do not constitute crimes."
theknight@fnnews.com Jung Kyung-soo Reporter