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| Supreme Court building / Korea Times file |
By Jun Ji-hye
The Supreme Court upheld an appellate court's decision not to punish an Iranian national charged with obtaining a visa based on a falsified document, citing an international convention stipulating that penalties should not be imposed on refugees for illegal entry.
In 2016, the Iranian national applied for a short-term visa to the Korean Embassy in his home country, presenting an invitation letter that he claimed was issued by a Korean company.
But the Iranian was found to have received the letter from a broker after paying $4,700.
The Iranian managed to obtain the short-term visa anyway and entered Korea. He then filed a refugee application the same year.
As the refugee application was rejected by the Ministry of Justice, he filed an administrative suit and finally won refugee status following a Supreme Court ruling in November 2020. At the time, the top court acknowledged concerns that he could be persecuted in Iran for converting to Christianity.
Prosecutors, who became aware of the fake document the Iranian presented to the embassy, handed him over to the separate trials in 2018.
In September in that year, a district court sentenced him one year in prison, suspended for two years.
While he appealed that sentence, he won the administrative suit regarding his status as a refugee. Thus, the appellate court overturned the ruling issued by the district court and decided in February 2021 not to punish him.
Prosecutors lodged an appeal, but the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court's decision.
The top court cited Article 31 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees that stipulates, "Contracting states shall not impose penalties on account of their illegal entry or presence on refugees."
"Korea's ratification of the convention offers legal basis that the Iranian should be exempt from criminal penalties," the court said in its ruling.
Korea joined the convention in 1992 and its rules came into effect in March of the following year.
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