| nhuchche |
Posted
on 06-Nov-02 01:29 PM
Nepal woman wins lawsuit against state
by Jeon Jin-bae
November 06, 2002
A Seoul court yesterday ruled in favor of a Nepalese woman who was mistakenly confined to a psychiatric hospital here for seven years and ordered the government to pay her 28 million won ($23,000) in damages.
The civil division of the Seoul District Court ruled that Korean authorities were negligent in their treatment of the woman, identified as Chandra Gurung, who returned to Nepal soon after she was released from the hospital in 2000.
The case arose from an arrest in November 1993, when she was reported to the police for failing to pay a bill at a restaurant in eastern Seoul. Police officers who questioned her ordered her to be admitted to a state mental hospital because she stuttered and was unable to speak Korean properly. She remained in the hospital's care for seven years. Reports from the hospital to the police that the woman may be a Nepalese national went ignored.
The confirmation of her nationality was made in March 2000 through the help of Korean civic and religious groups sympathetic to her plight, and she was released soon after. The damage suit was brought with the aide of the civic groups.
The police were negligent in not checking the most basic facts after the arrest, the court said in its ruling. The police were also derelict in their duties when they did not follow up on the information about her submitted by the hospital, the court said.
She had been in the country for about a year working at a textile factory when she was arrested.
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