【天亞社．首爾訊】韓國天主教會籲請國會廢除死刑，並遞交一份收集了逾十萬個天主教徒簽名的請願書。
韓國主教團「廢除死刑小組」十月八日在國會大樓召開記者會，促請國會議員立法終止死刑。
會後，主教們遞交一份他們及逾十萬教友簽名的請願書。這次行動緊隨在同一天韓國五十三位議員提交一份廢除死刑草案之後。
主教團副秘書長卞勝湜神父〔圖左四〕說，教會的呼籲是建立於尊重生命和人權的基礎上。
他承認，當暴力罪行不斷增加時，許多人都支持恢復死刑。但他堅持，國際社會趨向廢除死刑，他希望該國的第十八屆國會也將如此做。
韓國沒有執行死刑已近十二年，獲關注人權的「國際特赦組織」評定為一個「以實際行動」廢除死刑的國家。上一次絞死廿三人是在一九九七年十二月卅日，目前全國仍有五十八名死囚。
卞神父說，請願書是為了完成已故金壽煥樞機主教的遺願，他生前強烈要求廢除死刑。金樞機於今年二月十六日安息主懷。
請願書於去年十二月起，在一千五百四十三個堂區裡收集簽名，為期三個月。
小組決定等到議員提出廢除死刑草案後，再把請願書遞交給國會立法諮詢辦公室，以達到更大的效果。
有關議案要求廢除死刑，並以不得保釋的終身監禁取而代之。它指出，死刑不能遏止暴力罪行，但是廢除死刑將保護和尊重人權。
不過，議案很可能像之前其他類似議案一樣遭否決。
在上屆國會，有逾半數議席的一百七十五位議員共同推動一份反對死刑議案，但是在「立法與司法委員會」中被保守派議員阻止對該草案進行討論。
根據國會規章，任何提交國會表決的草案必須先由該委員會討論通過。
在本屆國會裡，二百九十個議席中的一百六十七位議員來自保守派「國大黨」。李明博總統屬於該黨，他也贊成保留死刑。
根據司法部今年二月的調查，逾六成四的韓國人贊成死刑，反對者祇有約一成八，其餘的沒有表態。
無論如何，該議案的主要發起人在野「民主黨」議員金富謙期待取得進展。他對天亞社說：「這次我已得到委員會主席的承諾會討論議案，由此它將成為一個議題，亦可加深議員們對它的理解。」
委員會主席是民主黨的柳宣浩，他是議案簽署者之一。
天主教人權委員會秘書長金德真對天亞社說：「廢除死刑不應受政黨利益的支配，因為它關乎尊重生命和人權。」
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KOREA Church lends support to death-penalty abolition bill
SEOUL (UCAN) -- Church representatives have appealed to Korea’s National Assembly to abolish the death penalty and submitted a petition signed by over 100,000 Catholics.
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| Father John Bosco Byeon Seung-sik (second from right) submits to a National Assembly official (extreme left) Catholics' appeal against the death penalty |
On Oct. 8, the Korean bishops' Subcommittee for the Abolition of Capital Punishment held a press conference in the National Assembly building, during which they urged lawmakers to end capital punishment.
After the conference, the bishops submitted the petition containing the signatures of 100,481 Catholics, including their own. The appeal came on the same day that 53 Korean lawmakers submitted a bill proposing the abolition of the death penalty.
Father John Bosco Byeon Seung-sik, undersecretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea (CBCK), said the Catholic Church's appeal was made based on respect for life and human rights.
He recognized that as violent crimes increase, there are those who would like to see executions resume in the country. But he insisted that the international trend is moving toward the abolition of capital punishment, and expressed his hope the 18th National Assembly would do so too.
On Dec. 30, 2007, South Korea marked 10 years since its last executions, when 23 people were hanged, thus becoming an abolitionist country "in practice" as defined by international human rights group Amnesty International.
Presently, there are 58 convicts awaiting execution by hanging.
Father Byeon said the petition was organized to fulfill the wishes of the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan of Seoul, who strongly supported abolition. Cardinal Kim died on Feb. 16 this year.
The petition, started in December last year, was conducted in all 1,543 parishes in South Korea over three months.
The subcommittee decided to wait for the 53 lawmakers to submit their bill before handing in their petition to the Legislative Counseling Office of the National Assembly in order to achieve more impact.
The bill calls for the abolition of the death penalty and its replacement with life imprisonment without parole or commutation. It argues that the death penalty does not deter violent crimes but its abolition would protect and respect human rights.
However, the bill looks likely to be rejected like other similar bills before it.
During the previous National Assembly, an anti-death penalty bill endorsed by 175 legislators -- more than half the assembly -- was submitted. However, conservative lawmakers in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee blocked discussion on it.
According to National Assembly regulations, any proposed bill must be discussed in that committee before being forwarded to the assembly.
In the present National Assembly, 167 lawmakers from the 290-seat house come from the conservative Grand National Party. President Lee Myung-bak, who is from this party, also favors keeping the death penalty.
According to a Ministry of Justice survey last February, 64.1 percent of Koreans are also in favor of capital punishment, while only 18.5 percent oppose it. Others were undecided.
However, Kim Boo-kyum, a main sponsor of the bill from the opposition Democratic Party, expects some progress. He told UCA News, "This time, I got a promise from the chairperson of the committee to discuss the bill."
"If committee members discuss the bill, it will become an issue and their understanding of it will deepen," he said.
The committee chairperson is Peter Lew Seon-ho from the Democratic Party, one of the co-signers of the bill.
Andrew Kim Duck-jin, secretary general of the Catholic Human Rights Committee, told UCA News, "The abolition of the death penalty should not be swayed by party interests since it deals with respecting human life and human rights."