Death of South Korean ‘torture expert’ reopens authoritarian era wounds

The death of one of South Korea’s most notorious police officers, known for his torture methods on prisoners, has revived painful memories of human rights abuses during the country’s era of military-backed authoritarian rule.Lee Geun-an, dubbed the “torture expert”, succumbed to multiple organ failure on Thursday at the age of 88.He had faced lifetime criticism for never expressing remorse and referring to himself as a “patriot”, once comparing his interrogation methods to “art”.Survivors of police torture in Lee’s time have recalled how interrogators used aliases to conceal their identities while carrying out abuse.Among the most feared was a man known as “Black Bear”, reviled for his brutal, self-devised methods – he was identified many years later as Lee.Interrogation is like an art, though I failed to perfect it in a beautiful wayThe alleged torture processes concocted by the former chief inspector included “chicken roasting”, in which victims were bound by their hands and feet to a bar and suspended like meat over a fire, as well as joint dislocations, waterboarding and electric shocks.