The Ministry of Justice said on the 14th that it has completed a blanket withdrawal and waiver of appeals, including appeals to higher courts, in government compensation lawsuits filed against the state by victims who were forcibly confined at Brothers Home and Seongam Academy.
The Ministry of Justice said that as of the 12th, it had withdrawn all appeals in a total of 52 cases involving 512 victims whose second- and third-instance proceedings were underway, and had uniformly waived appeals in a total of 19 cases involving 135 victims whose first- and second-instance rulings had been delivered.
Of these, the Brothers Home cases total 49 (417 victims), and the Seongam Academy cases total 22 (230 victims).
Jeong Seong-ho, Minister of Justice, said, "This withdrawal and waiver of appeals is for the state to acknowledge on its own the human rights violations caused by state violence during the authoritarian period against the victims of Brothers Home and Seongam Academy, who have suffered for a long time, and to move toward true recovery and integration."
To swiftly remedy the victims' rights, the Ministry of Justice will first pay the full amount of compensation and later discuss sharing the compensation burden with Busan and Gyeonggi Province.
The Ministry of Justice said it will continue to refrain from customary appeals in government compensation lawsuits filed by victims of unlawful acts by the state.