A Letter of Appeal for Support to Undeserved Imprisonment of Mr.ChoiYul

Dear Friends Around the World,

We would like to ask you to give special attention to the plight of Mr. ChoiYul and to give your full support to having him released from prison.

Mr. ChoiYul, a winner of South Korea’s UN Global 500 award in 1994 and of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1995 for his 40 years of environmental activism, was sentenced to a one-year prison term by the South Korean Supreme Court on February 15, 2013 for allegedly accepting a bribe.

Mr. Choi started environmental activities while being imprisoned in the 1970s for his fight against the country’s dictatorship. He has been a pioneer in Korea’s environmental movement for the last 40 years and has achieved innumerable successes. He was the founder of Korea Federation for Environmental Movement(KFEM), won success in cancelling the dam project on the Dong River, stopped nuclear waste shipment from Taiwan to North Korea, and led actions against the reclamation of tidal flats, dam construction, and the particularly notorious Four Major Rivers Project. Due to his successful activities, he was awarded the UN Global 500 Award and Goldman Environmental Prize.

As a founder of Korea Green Foundation, he launched the internationally well-known Environmental Film Festival, organized the “Peace Boat” and “Green Boat”, and supported grassroots environmental organizations within and outside Korea. In order to expand his activities into Asia, he plans to change the name of the Korea Green Foundation to “Asia Green Foundation”.

Investigation of him began in 2008 when the Lee Myung-bak government planned the Four Major Rivers project that has already shown indiscriminate destruction of related terrestrial ecosystems. In order to carry out the project, the government needed to neutralize environmental organizations and their leaders. Mr. ChoiYul, a long-time and respected symbol of Korea’s environmental movement, has beentargeted owing to the history of his central role against ecologically destructive projects in Korea since 1982. The Supreme Prosecutors Office released misinformation to the public. In three of four cases against him, he has been proven not guilty. With respect to the bribery allegationof which he was accused of being guilty, he was originally cleared of all charges in the District Court, sentenced to a one-year prison termby the Intermediate Court, without any further inquiry and investigation. This judgment by the Intermediate Court was confirmed by the Supreme Court simply by reviewing records of the lower courts, without any additional investigation.

A rule in Korea’s legal system says that in a judicial trial the judge of the Appeals Court must re-examine the case in situations where he or she overrules a lower court’s decision. However, in Mr. ChoiYul’s case, the judge even dismissed the lawyer’s appeal to re-examine it. Without new evidence and re-examination, the Appeals Court judge was not allowed to overrule the lower court’s decision. Furthermore, one of the witnesses confessed at the first trial, from April 2009 to January 2011, that he had been bribed to give false testimony.

At a press conference after the Supreme Court decision, Mr. Choi said that he never accepted any bribes from anyone, and that unjust power may detain his physical body, but it could not imprison his spirit as an environmental activist. He promised to continue environmental protection activities inside and outside prison.

Our fellow environmentalists and intellectuals in Asia and the world, we want you all to join our campaign of ‘Free ChoiYul’. We would like to cordially ask you to join sending a petition letter asking South Korea’s new President Park Geun-hye for a special pardon of Mr. ChoiYul. Please find the Free ChoiYul website below and sign the petition letter.

Your support of Mr. Choi will have a powerful impact on letting Mr. Choi resume environmental activities in Asia and the world. Thank you very much!

In Solidarity,

Professor Lee, See-Jae,

Ms. Ji, Young-Sun

Professor Jang, Jae-Yeon

Co-Presidents, Korea Federation for Environmental Movement

Mr. Yoon, Jun-Ha,

President, Korea Green Foundation

Notes:

(1) If you want to do more than signing the petition at the , please write your petitioned letter with your own words to the President with cc Minister of Justice. If you compose it, please send it to meChoony Kim and SooYeon Lim at nd nd we can forward it to the government.

President Park, Geun-Hye
1 Chongwadaero, Chongro-ku, Seoul, 110-820 Korea

Minister of Justice Hwang, Kyo-Ahn

Building #5, Gwacheon Government Complex, Jungang-dong1, Gwacheon-si, Kyunggi-do. Republic of Korea

(2) Please send messages of support and encouragement to Mr.ChoiYul