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Courts must deliver their rulings speedily

Published: 01 Oct. 2024, 20:02

Prosecutors asked for a three-year prison term for Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung in their case against the opposition big gun for coercing his secretary of Gyeonggi governorship to make false testimony at court in 2019 to help his earlier trial.

Prosecutors filed the indictment against Lee without physical detention in October last year and are pressing onward with their second prison recommendation for Lee who is standing in four separate trials. They proposed two years last month on their charge against Lee for violating the Public Official Election Act.

Trials on election law violations must abide by the so-called 6-3-3 rule, referring to the time limit of six months for the court to arrive on its verdict in the first trial, three months in the appeal trial and three months in the final trial at the Supreme Court to prevent undue delays that could affect the status of elected officials. The provision has been effective since it was affixed to the National Assembly Election Act through a bipartisan agreement in 1991. The provision was also embedded in the Public Official Election Act when it was legislated in 1994. The rule is to hasten the trial process on an elected official accused of tampering with the rights of voters. Yet Lee was exempt from this as the first trial on Lee indicted in September 2022 on the charge of violating the election act is still in progress. If a verdict is delivered on Oct. 15 as the court had promised, it will arrive 20 months past the legal timeline. Although there is no time limit on the case of subornation of perjury, the court must expedite the process to stay true to justice.

Speedy and timely justice is important not only to bring justice to offenses but also to redress the relief of an injured party. The Constitution stipulates that all citizens have the right to a speedy trial, but reality says otherwise. According to court records, civil settlements in a first trial that took 9.9 months in 2019 took a year in 2021, which was further lengthened to 15.8 months last year. In case of criminal cases, it took an average 228.7 days for the first court to deliver a ruling last year, compared with 174 days in 2019. Trial delays aggravate the pain and legal cost for those being tried.

The onus falls on the court. Upon inauguration last December, Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae vowed to address trial delays as his priority, suggesting his awareness on the seriousness of court delays under his predecessor Kim Myeong-su. As a result, public confidence in the court is waning. As the adage goes, justice delayed is justice denied. Justice for citizens is deferred if the bench sits too long on cases. Intentional court delays by the accused also must be strictly regulated. The legislature must hasten a review on the bill to increase the number of judges to expedite trial process.