Emmanuel Thomas l Tuesday, March 14, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea – Dong-Hyuk Shin no doubt passed as one of the living examples of faith among Jehovah’s Witnesses, with a very strong faith worthy of emulation.
He is based in South Korea but his story is one that would move many to tears. For his strong conviction, he has been convicted 49 times and has also appeared in appeal courts for more than 69 times and received a total of 39 verdicts.
He was not born a Witness. He embraced it while in military service. He was enlisted in the reserve forces in 2005, subject to regular summonses for military training over the next eight years.
“Soon after his discharge, Mr. Shin took up a study of the Bible. It’s message of peace touched his conscience and moved him to object to military service. When summoned for reserve forces training in March 2006, he informed military officials that he could not accept the training because it violated his conscience”, said the website, Jw.org. This marked the beginning of his travail. The South Korean Government saw this as an affront and decided to turn the heat on him.
“The military ignored Mr. Shin’s objection to reserve forces military training and issued to him a total of 30 summonses for the 2006 calendar year. Mr. Shin continued to receive summonses for the next seven years.
“ In total, from March 2006 through December 2013, he was summoned 118 times for reservist training. Because Mr. Shin respectfully declined to report each time, he was prosecuted and convicted 49 times, appeared in trial and appeal courts 69 times, and received a total of 35 court verdicts”, the witnesses said on their website.
In October 7, 2014, the Ulan District Court ruled that “it is understandable that [Dong-hyuk Shin], upon becoming one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, had no other option but to commit the offense in the instant case, as he found it impossible to resolve the tension between the military duty and his inner conscience and religious conviction.”
Nevertheless, Shin was fined more than 16 million won ($13,322 U.S.) and six times sentenced to prison terms of at least six months, which were substituted with conditional sentences. In one case, a court ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service.
Shin’s appeal was rejected at the Supreme Court. But having no legal remedy within South Korea, he filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee (Committee) in June 2016. He is claiming that by subjecting him to repeated call-ups, prosecutions, and convictions, South Korea violated its obligation to respect the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Speaking on his many travails, he said, “I was severely distressed and anxious. It seemed as if this test would never end. My frequent court appearances also caused distress to my family. I think my mother suffered as much as I did during those nine years, and the anxiety had a detrimental effect on her health.
“Knowing how distressed she was because of my situation, I felt heartbroken. And I also suffered economically. The cycle of call-ups and resulting prosecutions and convictions forced me to change my employment seven times because the obligation to attend court hearings multiplied my absences from work.”
