South Korea's Supreme Court has ordered the government to grant asylum to a Chinese family who fear persecution after the father protested at Beijing's rights abuses, court records showed Friday.
It was the first time Seoul has made such a decision for Chinese nationals.
Yuan Wenrui, 54, his wife and son "belong to a category of people who 'have a well-founded fear of being persecuted' as defined by the UN refugee convention," presiding judge Yang Chang-Soo said.
He rejected the justice ministry's appeal against lower court rulings giving them asylum.
The three filed for refugee status in September 2003 after entering Korea as members of a tour group.
The ministry rejected their application in September 2006, saying Yuan failed to prove that he had engaged in anti-Beijing activities at home.
However an administrative court in 2007 ruled in his favour.
The court noted that Yuan had sent letters to Amnesty International and a Chinese labour organisation in the United States, calling for action to curb human rights abuses in his home country.
The court was told how he also joined a demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in Seoul in June 2004, denouncing the crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The justice ministry appealed against the lower court's ruling, but the high court also ruled in favour of the family.
The ministry said it will now grant the family refugee status.
"They didn't have enough documents to prove their anti-government activity," Kim Jae-nam, an official in charge of asylum cases, told Yonhap news agency.
"Most foreigners seeking asylum are illegal residents who want to stay here, and it's not easy to sort out genuine refugees."
South Korea began granting asylum in 2001.
Since then 95 people, 41 of whom are from Myanmar, have been granted the status while about 370 applicants have been denied.
All other applicants are awaiting a decision or have left the country during the deliberation process, according to ministry figures.
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