South Korea examines Indian man's deportation abuse complaint

An Indian national petitioned South Korea's National Human Rights Commission over alleged abuse during deportation. Acting Justice Minister Lee Jin-soo acknowledged that taping the man's mouth was wrong after body-camera footage was shown.

The complaint concerns his deportation on Aug. 27 and was filed on Oct. 2, alleging violations of bodily freedom and dignity. According to the petition, he had spent about eight months at an immigration holding centre in Hwaseong, roughly 40 kilometres south of Seoul.

He alleged that officials removed him in handcuffs with his mouth taped and that he was hit in the cheek and choked at the airport. The account did not report a commission finding on those allegations.

On Oct. 8, Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Park Eun-jung presented footage supplied by the Justice Ministry during a parliamentary audit. Yonhap described the man saying he would not resist and would leave voluntarily, while an officer appeared to grab his neck and ordered him to stop talking.

Lee called the taping clearly wrong. That acknowledgement concerned a specific action and did not establish every other allegation in the petition.