An independent panel looking into the judiciary's past misdeeds selected 12 cases for reinvestigation, including the torture death of a student and the prosecution of TV documentary makers, the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday. 

The committee, commissioned by the ministry, recommended cases that are fraught with suspected cover-ups, abuses of power, manipulations and corruption, to a special inquiry team under the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

The investigation team is made up of 30 outside experts. It has six months to dig into the cases, with a possible extension of another three months.
 

The nine-member committee, consisting mainly of law professors, was launched as part of the ministry's efforts to redress injustice and human rights violations committed by the prosecution and court over the decades. 

One of the cases is the death of Park Jong-chul, a Seoul National University student, who died in 1987 while being tortured by police. His death sparked massive protests against the military-backed Chun Doo-hwan government, resulting in the restoration of a direct democratic presidential election.

The panel also picked the prosecution's probe into MBC TV producers, in 2008, for their "false" reports on U.S. beef imports, which stirred a huge public backlash against the Lee Myung-bak government.

Other cases involve suspected illegal surveillance of civilians and bribery allegations implicating former lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, an elder brother of former president Lee. (Yonhap)