Time Limitation of Crimes under the Criminal Act
Effect of the Prescription of Crimes
- A person sentenced to punishment (excluding the death penalty) will be exempt from sentence execution after the time limitation (Article 77 of the Criminal Act).
Period of Time Limitation
- The period of time limitation shall end if the trial declaring the sentence determines that the sentence shall not be executed. The time limitation of each of the following penalties is categorized as follows.
· Death penalty: 30 years
· Imprisonment or imprisonment without labor for life: 20 years
· More than 10 years of imprisonment or imprisonment without labor: 15 years
· More than 3 years of imprisonment or imprisonment without labor or more than 10 years of suspension of qualification: 10 years
· Less than 3 years of imprisonment or imprisonment without labor or more than 5 years of suspension of qualification:: 7 years
· Less than 5 years of suspension of qualification, or fines, confiscation, or additional collection: 5 years
· Detention or penalty: 1 year
Suspension of Penalty Time Limitation
- The penalty’s time limitation period is suspended when the offender is arrested in the case of imprisonment, confinement, and detention, and when compulsory measures are initiated in the case of fines, surcharges, confiscation, and collection (Article 80 of the Criminal Act).
※ In this case, the time limitation shall be temporarily suspended until resumption. The total period of time limitation shall not include the suspended period.
- The time limitation period shall not be counted when the person confirmed to be penalized stays abroad before the penalty execution to be exempted from the punishment (Article 79, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Act).
Cessation of Penalty Time Limitation
- For the death penalty, imprisonment, imprisonment without labor, and detention, the time limitation shall cease after the prisoner is arrested. For fine, penalty, confiscation, and additional collection, the time limitation shall cease after the initiation of legal disposition (Article 80 of the Criminal Act).
※ The proceeded time limitation period will lose effect by the cessation of the penalty’s time limitation, so the time limitation period will restart after the cessation.
Prescription of public prosecution according to the Criminal Act
“Prescription of public prosecution” refers to extinguishing a nation’s right of prosecution after the termination of the prosecution prescription period.
※ The prescription of public prosecution extinguishes a nation’s right of prosecution, making it different from the extinctive prescription of punishment, which extinguishes the state’s punishment power (Collection of Legal Terms and Cases, By the Ministry of Government Legislation and Korea Legislation Research Institute, 2003).
Prosecution prescription period
- The prosecution prescription period ends after a certain period by penalty type as follows (Article 249, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Procedure Act).
· Crimes sentenced to the death penalty: 25 years
· Crimes sentenced to imprisonment or imprisonment without labor for life: 15 years
· Crimes sentenced to more than 10 years of long-term imprisonment or imprisonment without labor: 10 years
· Crimes sentenced to less than 10 years of long-term imprisonment or imprisonment without labor: 7 years
· Crimes sentenced to less than 5 years of long-term imprisonment or imprisonment without labor, more than 10 years of long-term suspension of qualification, or a fine 5 years
· Crimes sentenced to more than 5 years of long-term suspension of qualification 3 years
· Crimes sentenced to less than 5 years of suspension of qualification, detention, penalty, or confiscation: 1 year
- For crimes in which public prosecution has been instituted, the prescription of public prosecution is deemed to have been completed 25 years after the filing of the prosecution without confirmation of the judgment (Article 249, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act).
- Suppose there are crimes punishable by the joint imposition of two or more principal penalties or by the imposition of one from among two or more principal penalties. In this case, the period of the prescription of public prosecution shall be determined for the crime punished with the heavier sentence among the two (Article 250 of the Criminal Procedure Act).
- If the penalty has been aggravated or mitigated under the Criminal Act, the period of the prescription of public prosecution shall be determined for the crime sentenced before the aggravated or mitigated penalty (Article 251 of the Criminal Procedure Act).
The date when the prescription of public prosecution is reckoned
- The prescription of public prosecution proceeds after the criminal act has ended.
- For accomplices, the prescription of public prosecution is reckoned from when the criminal act has ended.
Suspension and effectiveness of the prescription of public prosecution
- The prescription of public prosecution is implemented when the proceeding of the lawsuit stops as the prosecution has been filed, leading to the prosecution dismissal or confirmation of the trial of the violation of jurisdiction (Article 253, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Procedure Act).
- It proceeds when the prescription of public prosecution has been suspended by filing prosecution for one accomplice among the whole, affecting other accomplices, and when the corresponding trial for the case has been confirmed (Article 253, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act).-
- If the criminal stays abroad to avoid being penalized with criminal punishment, the prescription of public prosecution shall be suspended during the corresponding period (Article 253, paragraph 3 of the Criminal Procedure Act).