'6 Million Won Fine with Suspended Sentence'... Supreme Court Overturns Ruling for "Violation of Law"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that sentenced a fine exceeding 5 million won, the threshold for probation, stating it was a "violation of the law." By accepting the Prosecutor General's extraordinary appeal, the Supreme Court corrected the probation sentence that was improperly given in the lower courts.

On the 10th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Kim Seonsu) announced that it overturned the probation part of the original ruling which sentenced Mr. A, accused of fraud, to a fine of 6 million won with 2 years of probation.

Mr. A, a livestock product distributor, was accused of embezzling livestock products worth 210 million won between 2017 and 2018. In the first trial, Mr. A was sentenced to a fine of 6 million won with a 2-year suspension of execution. Although the prosecution appealed, claiming the sentence was too light, the second trial upheld the first trial's sentence.

However, according to Article 62 of the Criminal Act, which stipulates the conditions for probation, the court may suspend the execution of a sentence for 1 to 5 years when sentencing "imprisonment or detention for up to 3 years" or a "fine of up to 5 million won," considering the circumstances such as the motive of the crime. This means that if a fine of 6 million won is imposed, probation cannot be granted.

Accordingly, the prosecution filed an extraordinary appeal last year, stating that "there was a legal violation in Mr. A's ruling." An extraordinary appeal is an emergency relief procedure where the Prosecutor General requests the Supreme Court to re-examine a criminal case after the judgment has been finalized if a legal violation is found.

The Supreme Court panel judged, "The original court could not have suspended the execution of the sentence while imposing a fine of 6 million won on the defendant," and "this corresponds to a case where the judgment violated the law."

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