Retroactive Application of Statute of Limitations for Sexual Violence Against Minors... Constitutional Court Rules "Constitutional"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Constitutional Court has ruled that retroactively applying the law that sets the statute of limitations for sexual violence crimes against minors to start from the victim's coming of age does not violate the Constitution.

On the 30th, the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the current law in a constitutional complaint case filed by a man, Mr. A, who was convicted of sexually molesting and raping a minor, stating, "The current law does not violate the constitutional principle of protecting legitimate expectations regarding the statute of limitations."

Mr. A repeatedly molested and raped the victim (then 12 years old) from January to December 2005 and was brought to trial in November 2017. However, the statute of limitations for this crime was seven years at the time, so by 2017, when Mr. A was indicted, the statute of limitations had already expired.

However, the Sexual Violence Punishment Act enacted in 2010 stipulated that if the victim is a minor, the statute of limitations starts from the day the victim reaches adulthood, and this was applied retroactively in this case.

After Mr. A's 10-year prison sentence was confirmed in court, he filed a constitutional complaint arguing that the Sexual Violence Punishment Act violates the principle of non-retroactivity of punishment by retroactively extending the starting point of the statute of limitations for an unspecified period. Article 13, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution states that no one shall be prosecuted for an act that was not a crime under the law at the time it was committed, and that penal provisions shall not be applied retroactively.

The Constitutional Court stated, "Sexual violence crimes such as molestation against children under 13, who have significantly limited coping abilities and are vulnerable to such crimes, need to be punishable as long as the perpetrator is alive," and ruled, "The retroactive application of the statute of limitations does not have any constitutional value or necessity that should be specially protected over the public interest of substantive justice, which aims to correct the illegal state by punishing sexual violence perpetrators whose interests are limited by this."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.