Jang Dae-ho, whose life sentence was finalized in the "Han River torso murder case," filed a lawsuit protesting restrictions on watching television in prison, but it was rejected.
According to legal sources on the 18th, the Daegu District Court's Administrative Division 2 (Presiding Judge Ju Gyeong-tae) last month dismissed a lawsuit filed by Jang Dae-ho, who is serving time on charges including murder and destruction of a corpse, seeking confirmation of the invalidity of a "television viewing ban" imposed by North Gyeongsang Northern No. 2 Prison.
According to the ruling, after receiving disciplinary sanctions six times last year for assaulting and verbally abusing prison staff, among other acts, Jang was transferred to North Gyeongsang Northern No. 2 Prison, which houses inmates with violent tendencies.
Afterward, corrections authorities, citing facility safety and order, placed Jang for four months in a cell without a television and also restricted attendance at religious services and the use of an electric shaver.
In response, Jang filed suit, saying the measures "amounted to a prolonged restriction of basic rights and constituted an abuse of discretion."
However, the court said, "There is concern about fights with other inmates, and it is recognized that he is not suited to communal living," adding, "The measures are reasonable as a preventive step."
It added, "It is difficult to conclude that the measures excessively infringed on basic rights."
In 2019, Jang was indicted on charges of killing a motel guest with a blunt object at a motel where he worked in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, mutilating the body, and dumping it in the Han River. In 2020, the Supreme Court finalized his life sentence.