Lenient Sentence Reductions Through 'Trickery' Including Donations to Seon Cheo-yong... Prosecution States "Strict Response Policy"

Avoiding prison sentence by 'manipulating wedding invitations'... Frequent cunning sentence reductions including forgery of sexual crime settlement documents
Prosecutors: "We will thoroughly investigate and punish derivative crimes such as creating false materials"

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] The prosecution has established a policy to strictly deal with so-called ‘trick sentence reductions’ attempts, where defendants receive leniency during trials by claiming they are "reflecting on their actions."

On the 20th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office announced measures to address recent cases where criminals attempt ‘trick sentence reductions’ by ▲submitting donation documents to receive leniency and then immediately stopping donations, ▲forging wedding invitations to avoid imprisonment, or ▲coercing victims into signing settlement agreements. Particularly, there has been a surge in cases where sex offenders exploit these tactics, prompting the implementation of countermeasures at local prosecution offices.

It has been confirmed that many suspects or defendants have resorted to tricks such as forging settlement agreements to receive reduced sentences. For example, Mr. A, who was prosecuted in 2019 for assaulting his wife, secretly forged a settlement agreement without his wife’s knowledge and submitted it to the court. However, the public prosecutor uncovered this during the trial, leading to additional charges of forgery and use of a forged document. Mr. B, who secretly filmed under women’s skirts on the subway, received a suspended sentence with leniency by pledging regular donations to a sexual violence counseling center after being indicted, but stopped the donations immediately after the verdict was finalized. After receiving leniency, Mr. B committed another secret filming offense in a women’s restroom, resulting in a confirmed probation sentence.

To prevent such trick sentence reductions, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office plans to verify the authenticity of sentencing-related documents submitted by sex offenders during investigations and trials, including settlement agreements, employment and donation certificates, medical certificates, treatment confirmations, and certificates of completion of sexual crime prevention education, whenever there is suspicion of forgery or manipulation.

Furthermore, if the creation of false sentencing documents constitutes crimes such as document forgery or evidence tampering, the prosecution will continue to investigate and punish these derivative crimes even after the original case’s verdict is finalized.

Additionally, the prosecution will exclude personal circumstances of sex offenders that cannot be considered mitigating factors under the Supreme Court’s sentencing guidelines from grounds for sentence reduction. They will also actively submit opinions to courts to add ‘secondary victimization’ of victims as an aggravating factor in sentencing guidelines and plan to actively appeal cases where sentencing guidelines are deviated from.

However, it appears difficult to punish companies that write reflection letters or petitions on behalf of defendants or suspects and submit them to investigative agencies or courts. Since these companies do not include false information or forge reflection letters and petitions, there is no legal basis to punish them.

A Supreme Prosecutors' Office official stated, "We considered punishing reflection letter companies, but there are no legal provisions to do so, and since they do not provide consulting with the intent to help clients receive leniency through acquaintances in investigative agencies or courts, they cannot be punished even under the Attorney-at-Law Act."

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