Even on bail, Dr. Hak Ja Han cannot speak to her family.
In practice, she is prohibited from speaking to her family or almost anyone else.
On October 19, the Seoul High Court granted bail to Dr. Hak Ja Han, the religious leader of the Unification Church, on health grounds. However, the conditions are stricter than those of her previous suspension of detention.
These conditions are quite unusual and fall into the strict category even in Korea.
• Residence is limited only to the hospital where she is being treated (she cannot return home).
• Contact is allowed only with medical staff, her lawyers, and mobility aides.
• Family is not included.
• Contact with anyone involved in the case is prohibited. Contact with essentially everyone else is also barred.
She is 83. She has heart conditions, vision impairment, surgery after falls in detention, and significant weight loss.
At the hearing she said she cannot take her medication alone and asked to receive treatment at home with her family’s help. The court rejected that request. She was granted bail, yet she still cannot see or speak to her family.
She is effectively alone. She has been enduring this isolation for a long time.
This is the reality right now.
It is critical that the world know this.
A sermon became a crime.
A prayer became a conspiracy.
Tomorrow at 2 PM KST (1 AM ET / 10 PM PT tonight), a Korean appeals court sentences my father, Pastor Son Hyun-bo of Segero Presbyterian Church.
In the first trial, he was convicted under Article 85(3) of Korea's Public Official Election Act for a sermon he preached to his own congregation.
The theory: a pastor's "influence" over his own flock counts as illegal campaigning.
He was locked up for 5 months before he was released in January with a 6-month sentence, suspended for 1 year.
The prosecution appealed, not because he was found innocent, but because they wanted more.
If the appeals court removes the suspension, my father could go back to prison.
It didn't stop with him.
His associate pastor was later convicted for a single line in a prayer, spoken from the same pulpit.
The court called it a "conspiracy" with the senior pastor.
Think about what that means.
Not a rally.
Not a campaign ad.
A prayer inside a church.
This ruling becomes precedent. It will decide what the government lets a pastor say from the pulpit, and every anti-biblical law that comes after will point back to it.
This is South Korea today, a country that still calls itself a democracy.
Please pray with us tomorrow, for my father, for his associate pastor, and for freedom of speech, religion, and conscience in Korea. 🙏