Preventing 'Surprise and Eat-and-Run Deposits'... Mandatory Victim Opinion Hearing

The government is set to revise related systems to prevent acts such as 'surprise deposits' where criminal offenders attempt to reduce their sentences just before sentencing, and 'eat-and-run deposits' where offenders secretly retrieve deposited funds after the victim refuses to accept them.

On the 16th, the Ministry of Justice announced a legislative notice for amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act and the Deposit Act, which supplement the existing deposit system.

The amendment includes provisions requiring the court to mandatorily hear the victim's opinion when the offender makes a deposit. It also fundamentally restricts the offender's ability to retrieve criminal deposit funds.

However, exceptions allow retrieval if the victim agrees to the retrieval of the deposit or definitively refuses to accept it, or if the offender receives a not guilty verdict or a non-prosecution decision (excluding suspended prosecution) in the criminal trial or investigation that led to the deposit.

The Ministry of Justice plans to collect opinions until the 25th of next month and then submit the amendment to the National Assembly.

Additionally, to protect victims' personal safety, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office regulations have been amended to allow providing victims with the offender's address and other personal information, effective as of today.

Park Seong-jae, Minister of Justice, stated, “We will do our utmost to ensure that crime victims are guaranteed procedural rights as a pillar of the criminal justice system and receive substantial protection and support from the state from the time the crime occurs until their daily lives are restored.”

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