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Damages suit filed by family of man falsely accused in Hwaseong murders opens

Published: 28 Apr. 2026, 15:27 Updated: 28 Apr. 2026, 17:25

The older brother of the late Yoon Dong-il, second from right, who was falsely accused as a suspect in the Lee Choon-jae serial murders, holds a press conference in front of the Suwon District Court in Suwon, Gyeonggi, shortly after the retrial verdict on Oct. 30, 2025. [JOONGANG ILBO]

The family of a man who died after being wrongfully tied to the Hwaseong serial murders over three decades ago faced the state in court for the first time on Tuesday as a lawsuit against the government proceeded to trial.

Yoon Dong-il was wrongly identified as a murder suspect in 1990 in connection with one of a series of crimes that claimed 14 murder victims and nine rape victims in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, during the 1980s and 1990s. Although forensic evidence cleared him of the killings, police pursued a separate sexual assault charge against him. He was prosecuted in 1991, received a suspended sentence and was released after spending several months in pretrial detention. He was later diagnosed with cancer and died in 1997 at the age of 26.

At the first hearing at the Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday, Yoon's family and legal representatives requested that all investigation records from the original case be submitted, and the court also urged the state to actively cooperate with the disclosure. The next hearing is scheduled for July 7.

Prior to the lawsuit, the family had sought a retrial after the real killer, Lee Choon-jae, was identified in 2019. A subsequent investigation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission — a government body that examines historical injustices — concluded in 2022 that Yoon had been tortured while in police custody, including through sleep deprivation and physical abuse, until he gave a false confession.

“There were unlawful acts during the police investigation, including an illegal arrest, torture and falsified evidence," the commission had claimed.

In a retrial based on those findings, the Suwon District Court acquitted Yoon in October of last year, ruling that "the confession made to police lacked credibility as it was obtained through coercive interrogation" — 33 years after his conviction was finalized.

Through the ongoing damages suit, Yoon's family intends to hold the state accountable for the suffering the late Yoon endured and the harm inflicted on his family as a result of the investigative authorities' conduct.

BY PARK JONG-SUH [[email protected]]