Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, and the Absence of Due Process and Fair Trial Rights Although cases investigated by the Ministry of People’s Security end up in the courts, cases involving sentences of less than one year in a forced labor camp do not go to trial. Interviewees who received longer sentences described a court composed of a prosecutor, a judge, and three lay persons selected by the People’s Committee for their Party loyalty. This system predominantly concerns adherents of Shamanism. As for legal representation, criminal defendants cannot themselves engage an attorney, but they may be represented by a state-assigned attorney. In practice, the role of a defense attorney is perceived to be that of defending the state. Lee Eun Mi told investigators, “I had one attorney consultation before the trial […] The defense attorney did not argue in my favor. He said that there was nothing to argue as I had already confessed to the crime […] As he was a state-appointed attorney, he was not on my side.” Although we are not able to access a statistically random sample of criminal cases in North Korea, there is sufficient credible and structural evidence to suggest that these are institutional realities in a criminal justice system subject to Workers’ Party of Korea control, rather than a matter of isolated failures. For example, defense attorneys belong to the Central Defense Attorney League, which is an organizational unit of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and a defense attorney’s duty to political reporting means there can be no expectation of anything like client-attorney confidentiality. Kang Ga Mi, a former detainee from North Hamgyong, said “[Attorneys] come and ask you whether you were coerced into confession or were beaten, but they tell the authorities about what you said. […] They tell the officials everything because they are on the same side.” Especially for cases that are related to offenses against the political system, it is not in the interest of the court or the defense attorney to be seen to side with the defendant. As Park Sung Hwa, a former judicial professional in North Korea, explained, “I would not take the defense attorneys seriously. […] They cannot voice opinions, and winning against prosecutors does little good for them.” Prosecution of Shamanic adherents falls primarily under the purview of the Ministry of People’s Security, with the Prosecutor’s Office handling some cases. However, we note that the Ministry of State Security had also begun to handle Shamanic cases between 2013 and 2014 following party directives to crack down on ‘superstitious activities,’ and we further note a significant increase in government directives on the illegality of Shamanism since 2016. Beyond the courtroom, public trials and public criticism sessions serve as extrajudicial forms of justice and punishment for religious and belief adherents. Public trials may involve public criticism sessions where citizens are forced to witness the punishment of a person for anti-socialist acts, such as Shamanic practice. Public criticism sessions are overseen by provincial level authorities and the individuals who are the focus of these sessions will have been interrogated prior to their public trials. The forced attendance and participation of children in these sessions was documented as common practice by our investigators, and we in turn sourced imagery of this practice, which is displayed in Figure 4. Figure 4. This image shows a public trial for individuals accused of anti-socialist behavior where students and local residents were required to attend. Children of a young age, who are recognizable by the red scarves of the young pioneers, are seated at the front of the crowd. Images of trials, such as this, are very rare and taken at great risk. It is illegal to capture and share such images with the outside world. Source: Korea Future, 2021, www.koreafuture.org 18 Organized Persecution: Documenting Religious Freedom Violations in North Korea