FFWPU Europe and Middle East: Juraj Lajda - More Humanity in a Communist Prison than in S Korea

Former Czech political prisoner under communism asks whether Mother Han is being shown less humanity in long-term detention than he was under similar circumstances

The Voice of Conscience

Reflections by PhDr. Juraj Lajda (Doctor of Philosophy), lecturer and publisher, former political prisoner under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

See also Return to Custody as Court Rejects Health Plea

Prague, 21st February 2026 - A few hours ago, we learned that Dr. Hak Ja Han, the 83-year-old leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, has been returned to her detention cell after a brief ten-day release for urgent medical treatment in hospital. She remains detained on what, in my view, appears to be fabricated and circumstantial evidence.

Dr. Han suffers from multiple serious health conditions: deteriorating eyesight, mobility limitations following knee surgery, and a severe cardiac condition - arrhythmia - for which she underwent surgery only five months ago. Given these circumstances, I am deeply disturbed by her return to detention. It Artistic impression of Mother Han is difficult to believe that her medical condition could have in detention cell. Illustration: improved so dramatically in ten days that her life is no longer at Grok xAI risk.

I am profoundly shocked by the treatment of this elderly religious leader under the current South Korean administration. From my perspective - and I believe many share this concern - the decision to return her to detention raises urgent humanitarian and ethical questions.

My reaction is shaped in part by personal experience. I was myself detained long-term under a Communist regime in Eastern Europe. Even in that political system, I was treated more humanely than what now appears to be a life-threatening detention imposed on Dr. Han in a country that has been considered democratic since 1987.

Her situation brings back memories of my imprisonment in Czechoslovakia in the early 1970s. Ironically, I was arrested for following the teachings of the South Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. Along with 17 other young people - mostly students - I was sentenced to three years and two months for “subversion of the republic” after nearly ten months of investigation before trial.

During the investigation phase, I was held in remand prison in Bratislava, where I was interrogated daily until the case file was closed and the indictment prepared. About six months into my detention, after prolonged confinement in a 2-by-3-meter cell - often shared with two or three other inmates - my The place where Dr. Lajda was imprisoned from longstanding atopic eczema worsened 1973 to 1976 - the Palace of Justice in Bratislava, dramatically. The prison environment caused Slovakia my condition to deteriorate severely.

When I reported this to the prison doctor, he acknowledged that he could not properly treat me under the limited conditions available. He therefore requested that I be transferred to another prison facility in Brno, where better medical care was available.

Mugshot of Juraj Lajda from 1973

I was transported there and remained for forty days until my condition stabilized and the acute phase of the illness was brought under control.

Although I was still deprived of liberty in Brno, the conditions were adapted to medical necessity. The cell was larger, I had a bed, and my daily routine was adjusted to facilitate treatment. Each day I was taken to the infirmary, where doctors worked diligently to restore my health.

The decision regarding my hospitalization and its duration was made by a physician. Whether formal authorization from an investigator or judge was required, I do not know; if it was, it was granted. The purpose of detention was not suspended - but it was carried out with recognition that I was first and foremost a patient in need of medical care.

The doctor treated me as a human being, not as a political offender. His duty was to preserve health and life. He acted according to the ethical obligations embodied in the Hippocratic Oath - that is, he would strive to preserve human life at all costs. Political considerations did not override medical judgment. Even in a Communist prison, the principle prevailed that an accused person remains a human being deserving of care.

I come from a family of physicians; my father was a well-known surgeon. I therefore understand the professional and ethical responsibilities that accompany medical practice. In my case, medical judgment determined the course of treatment - not prosecutorial or judicial discretion.

This occurred in 1974, under the Communist regime of former Czechoslovakia.

Today, I must ask: who determines Dr. Hak Ja Han’s medical fate? Is it the attending physician - or the prosecutor, investigator, or judge? If a doctor recommends continued hospitalization, what prevents the authorities from granting it? Legal procedure should not supersede the preservation of human life.

Are medical professionals in this case able to act independently according to their ethical obligations? The Hippocratic Oath is not conditional upon political context. Physicians are entrusted with safeguarding life, irrespective of the legal status of their patients.

If medical necessity is subordinated to political considerations, the situation ceases to be lawful detention and begins to resemble deliberate endangerment. The question is not merely legal - it is moral.

My conclusion is sobering. In my own experience as a political prisoner under Communism, medical care was ultimately respected. If an elderly detainee in contemporary South Korea is denied necessary hospitalization despite grave health risks, it compels serious reflection about the direction in which that system is moving.

I am deeply shocked and profoundly concerned.

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Devotion beyond borders - The amazing story of Emotional Scenes As Mother Han Is Freed Japanese women living a life of service to the Briefly February 12, 2026 families and neighbourhoods of their South Korean husbands

-·- Tokyo, 19th February 2026 - Published as an article in the Japanese newspaper Sekai Nippo. Republished with permission. Translated from Japanese. Original article. Search…

Mending the Wounds Between Korea and Japan with Family Love for 40 Years Categories

The Devoted Lives of Japanese Brides Logo o f the Sekai Nippo by Jeong Seong-su (‘321?) ofSegye /Ibo, translated from Korean

The lives of Japanese brides who have settled into Korean society Send us a message present us today w ith a weighty theme. Crossing nat ional borders and living for decades in unf am iliar lands, serving their First Name * Last Name

• Korean parents-in-law an d raising many ch ildren, their devotion has been a hidden pillar supporting t h e community ethics that are gradually weaken ing in Korean society. Relig ious affairs Email • Recently, The Fragrance of Filial Devotion (.a ~~I ~/71). pu b lished report er Jeong by the International Family Council, compiled records of Seong-su (‘32i’r). Email Address approximately 800 fi lial piety awards granted by presid ents, Photo (2025): Segye /Ibo cabinet m inisters, and local government h eads. Through these Your Message * accounts, one catches a g limpse of t he lives of Japanese b rides, whose example demonstrates the va lue of human dignity beyond rel ig ion and nationalitv.

Ms. Ha nae Tanaka (9-f-:h • 1’-;1-I), who lives in Suwon, Submit

Gyeonggi Province, married into Korea in 1992 and for over 20 years cared for h er mother-in-law, who suffered from dementia, as if she w ere “her sixth child”. Empathizing with her husband’s filial devotion, she even obtained cert ification as a care worker and One of many couples who took port in a large internat ional served her mother- marriage blessing ceremony in Yong-in, South Korea, 30th in-law w it h utmost October 1988, where 2,000 couples were Korean/Japanese. sincer ity. Until her Photo: New Future Photos/ FFWPU fina l moments, she h eld an d cared for her like a baby, even when her mother-in-law could no longer control her bodily functions or manage to eat on her own.

After her mother-in -law’s passing, w hat overwhelmed her was not a sense of liberation but a heart-wrenching feeling of loss. To fi ll the longing t hat welled up inside her, she began o nce again visiting elderly people at a senior welfa re center to volunteer and serve society. Her life is like an epic that transforms pa inful years into the fruits of a meaningful existence.

The life of Ms. Asuka Seki (tct • 7’ ;,. :h ), w ho lives in

Some of the many couples who took port in a large in ternational marriage blessing ceremony in Yong-in, South Korea, 30t h October 1988, where 2,000 couples were Korean/Japanese. Photo: New Future Photos/ FFWPU

Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, is another testament to love. In a foreign land , she supported a four-generation extended family wh ile serving her great-grandmother-in- law and parents-in -law. For her, the most difficult challenge was her relationsh ip w ith her father-in-law, as there was a high emotional barrier bet ween t hem. However, hold ing fast to the teach ing of her fa ith that one must “let go of all attachments and become pu re in heart,” she gradua lly narrowed the d istance between them through prayer.

One day, her father- in -law suddenly collapsed from a stroke. She stayed by h is side, even tend ing to h is most intimate needs without hesitation. Her devotion softened not on ly h is paralyzed body but also h is ha rdened heart, and reun ited a once-divided fam ily.

These are on ly a few examples. Behind the devoted lives of many Japanese brides lies a d istinctive relig ious faith. The international mass w eddings proposed by Reverend Sun Myung Moon (~t! I’ll and Dr. Hak Ja Han (~§!Af) were an attempt to resolve the historical resentments (Q! Af~ ‘l,!~) between Korea and Japan at the smallest social unit: the family. H istorica l emotions that politics cou ld not untang le were loosened by their hands - hands that prepared brea kfast each morning and changed the diapers of ailing parents. Over 40 years, they have p roven the conviction t h at becoming a “family that cannot fu lly hate one another” is the shortest path to peace.

Yet real ity is harsh.

Image from on album known as the Illustrations of the Classic of Filial Piety. Unknown ortist(s) from the Song dynasty (960-1279). Photo: Taipei: Notional Palace Museum I Wikimedio Commons. Public domain image

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organ izations, insufficient light has been shed on the everyday lives and contributions of ord inary believers living within them. Approximately 8,000 Japan ese brides resid ing in Korea have been among the most sincere practit ioners of filial piety, careg iving, and community ethics-va lues that Korean society is gradually losing. They have served as neighborhood leaders and heads of women’s assoc iations, and as the “daughters of the village” (Df~”-1 ~ ). h ave effect ively sustained rural communities that are disappearing due to aging populations.

The stories they have shown through “caring for family” are among the most urgent assets we must recover. Drawing the teachings of The Classic of Filial Piety (Ii: ‘?l) out from the pages of ancient books and bring ing t hem into d aily life, their recorded experiences represent a profound effort to mend the wounds between Korea and Japan through fami ly love, and a meaningful achievement of Korea’s multicu lt u ral society.

Featured image above: A South Korean landscape with rice fields. Illustration Grok xAI, February 2026

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