JEJU -- A local court on Tuesday held sentencing hearings in retrials of more than 330 former prison inmates over the bloody 1948-1954 suppression of a civilian uprising on Jeju Island.

The Jeju District Court began the hearing at 10 a.m. for 335 former inmates convicted of violating the defense security law during the Jeju April 3 uprising, in the nation's largest-ever trial involving the largest number of defendants in a single case.

The retrials, divided into 21 sessions, are set to continue until 6 p.m., and all the former inmates are widely expected to be exonerated of their charges.

In the first session, 13 people were acquitted.

"The lives of the defendants were (wrongfully) taken away amid extreme ideological chaos when the nation had yet to be fully established, and their families lived in agony" the court said, giving out the verdict.

"I sincerely appreciate the court and the prosecutors" for the ruling, Park Young-su, a son of the late victim Park Se-won, told the court. "I am too nervous to utter a word," he said, wiping tears from his face.

Lee Im-ja, 79, who lost her father during the incident, shed tears of joy and gratitude upon the verdict.

"My mom had gone through a lot since my father went missing. We have longed for his return. Even faint sounds of wind made us wonder if he had come home," she said.

"I am so grateful for the acquittal, albeit belated, for my father," Lee said, choking up with emotion. "I wish my mom were still alive."

Two surviving inmates, Koh Tae-sam, 92, and Lee Jae-hun, 91, were also cleared of their charges.

On April 3, 1948, Jeju islanders began protesting against US military-led rule following Korea's liberation from the 1910-1945 colonial rule of Japan. The then-government distorted the uprising as a communist riot and massacred an estimated up to 30,000 civilians, about 10 percent of the island's population at the time, in armed crackdowns for years to come.

In the decades after 1954, authoritarian governments covered up the truth behind the incident and muzzled victims for the sake of public order and peace, the victims and their families have claimed. Some defended the government's bloody crackdown on islanders as part of a campaign to "exterminate communist sympathizers."

President Moon Jae-in issued an apology to the victims in April 2018, vowing to support the victims and help retrieve the remains of the missing. Moon also became the first sitting president to attend the memorial service on the island after President Roh Moo-hyun did so in 2006.

In January 2019, 18 survivors were practically exonerated of charges, including insurrection, in a landmark ruling in a retrial, where the court ruled the trials by the military court held under the martial law were illegal.

In December that year, a total of eight victims were acquitted of their charges. Also, 10 bereaved family members clinched a legal victory in January this year for their loved ones who have remained missing since the uprising.

On Feb. 26, the National Assembly passed an amendment bill on the Jeju April 3 Special Act, paving the way for fresh investigations into the incident and compensation of its victims. The law, approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday, is set to come into force in June.

"We expect the bill to lay the groundwork for the complete settlement of the Jeju April 3 uprising," Cheong Wa Dae deputy spokesperson Lim Se-eun said in a press statement released after the Cabinet approval. "We will continue to work to come up with measures to help heal the wounds of the victims and their families."

The Jeju court had pushed for the simultaneous retrials of 335 people, considering most of the former inmates are aged or have died. In the case the inmates remain missing or have died, their bereaved families attended the hearings.

According to government documents, there were 2,530 inmates who were incarcerated in prisons nationwide in connection with the uprising. (Yonhap)