▍Preliminary

Establishing a fair and impartial system of criminal procedure, increasing the accuracy of determination of facts and application of law, and improving the predictability of criminal sanctions to reach the goal of proportionate punishment to crimes and fair sentencing; strengthening the due process of law, implementing the protection of human rights, enhancing the knowledge and trust of people in criminal trial, and establishing an impartial court.

▍Introduction to Criminal Procedure

1. General procedure
   General criminal cases shall be tried and their rulings shall be made under direct, verbal and public general procedures.
2. Summary procedure
   After the defendant commits a crime, if the confession of the defendant or other evidence is sufficient to determine the guilt of the defendant, and if the pronounced criminal sanction can be “probation, fixed-term imprisonment that is convertible to a fine or community service, detention, or a fine” pursuant to law, the prosecutor may apply to the court for making ruling by the court under summary procedure without initiating prosecution by the prosecutor under general procedure. In other words, the case may be tried under “summary procedure”. For the case in which the prosecutor has initiated prosecution under general procedure, if the defendant confesses the crime and the same level of the sanction shall be imposed, the court may try the case under “summary procedure”.
3. Summary trial procedure
   To end the legal procedure as soon as possible and reduce the burden of the defendant in the legal procedure, for the criminal case that meets certain legal requirements and is not a felony, if the defendant pleads guilty, the procedure of evidence investigation may be simplified to have the ruling of the case with simple and clear facts issued as soon as possible.
4. Plea bargaining procedure
   For the case of which the statutory penalty is not death, life imprisonment, or three-year minimum imprisonment, and the case which is not a case of the first instance under the jurisdiction of the high court, before the end of the closing argument in the court or the issuance of a summary judgment, the prosecutor and the defendant may bargain on the sentencing (including confiscation) or the pronouncement of probation that the defendant agrees to accept. Once the both parties reach an agreement and the defendant pleads guilty, the prosecutor may apply to the court for making a judgment in accordance with the agreed sentencing reached in the plea bargaining procedure.

• Release Date : 2020-04-08
• Update : 2020-04-09