By Lee Kyung-min
Local courts should recognize jail terms served in foreign countries when sentencing people convicted here for the same offences, the Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday.
The court said that a clause in the criminal law, which does not oblige courts to consider overseas rulings, infringes upon the physical freedom of those convicted and is therefore unconstitutional.
But it said the clause should not be abolished immediately and should remain until the end of 2016, when the National Assembly is required to revise it, in order to prevent confusion from the absence of related regulations.
The decision comes after an appeal case from a man surnamed Song, who was arrested at an airport in Hong Kong in 2011 after authorities there found that he had a forged Korean passport. He was sentenced to one year in prison and served eight months there before being extradited to Korea.
Upon arriving at Incheon International Airport, Korean authorities arrested Song and indicted him for the same charge.
He filed for the petition after a district court and an appellate court both sentenced him to six months in prison.
Currently judges can reduce prison terms for people who have served parts of or full sentences set by overseas courts, at their own discretion, but such reductions are not compulsory. The Constitutional Court ruled that they should be obligatory.
"If perpetrators served prison terms in foreign countries and local courts do not take the terms into consideration, that would restrict those people's freedom too much," the court said. "Such decisions should not be at the discretion of individual judges."
Local courts should recognize jail terms served in foreign countries when sentencing people convicted here for the same offences, the Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday.
The court said that a clause in the criminal law, which does not oblige courts to consider overseas rulings, infringes upon the physical freedom of those convicted and is therefore unconstitutional.
But it said the clause should not be abolished immediately and should remain until the end of 2016, when the National Assembly is required to revise it, in order to prevent confusion from the absence of related regulations.
The decision comes after an appeal case from a man surnamed Song, who was arrested at an airport in Hong Kong in 2011 after authorities there found that he had a forged Korean passport. He was sentenced to one year in prison and served eight months there before being extradited to Korea.
Upon arriving at Incheon International Airport, Korean authorities arrested Song and indicted him for the same charge.
He filed for the petition after a district court and an appellate court both sentenced him to six months in prison.
Currently judges can reduce prison terms for people who have served parts of or full sentences set by overseas courts, at their own discretion, but such reductions are not compulsory. The Constitutional Court ruled that they should be obligatory.
"If perpetrators served prison terms in foreign countries and local courts do not take the terms into consideration, that would restrict those people's freedom too much," the court said. "Such decisions should not be at the discretion of individual judges."
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