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| The Constitutional Court holds a public hearing on the death penalty in Seoul, July 14. Yonhap |
Leaders of seven religious orders in Korea on Thursday urged the Constitutional Court to abolish the death penalty in their first joint opinion on the long-held dispute as the court was to hold an open hearing on the punishment.
In the written opinion submitted to the court a few hours before the hearing began, the leaders said capital punishment should be scrapped as it goes against human dignity and the right to life.
They include Ven. Wonhaeng, the head of the Jogye Order, the largest Buddhist sect in Korea; Lee Hong-jung, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea, an organization of Protestant churches; and Archbishop Kim Hee-joong of Gwangju, chairman of the Committee for Promoting Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea.
"All criminals who harm other people deserve punishment, but the country should not take their life away through the cruel punishment," the leaders said. "Instead, the country must examine primary causes behind such crimes and seek ways to prevent lawbreaking. And it must make effort to give administrative support to victims."
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