[단독] Ahn Tae-geun “compensate for innocence” claims criminal compensation for one year of detention

Ahn Tae-geun, a former Chief Prosecutor of the Ministry of Justice, leaves the government building after being acquitted in a revocation hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court on 29 last month. [연합뉴스]

Ahn Tae-geun (54), former attorney general, submitted a request for criminal compensation to the Seoul Central District Court on the 22nd. On the 29th of last month, after he was found innocent in pretrial detention for destruction, he applied for compensation for the number of days he was detained for almost a year. Criminal compensation refers to a system in which the State, that is, the prosecution, compensates for damages to victims who are unjustly detained in a criminal judicial process.

Prosecutor Ahn Jeon was sentenced to prison in the first and second trials last year for retaliation after sexually harassing prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun (47), and was detained at the East Seoul Detention Center in January this year. until the acquittal of the Supreme Court. He was arrested on January 23, 2019, and was released on Supreme Court bail on January 9 of the following year.

Subsequently, Prosecutor Ahn was found not guilty at a remand hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court. The prosecution was upheld not guilty after waiving the reappearance. Prosecutor Ahn told JoongAng Ilbo: “I applied for a claim for criminal compensation in accordance with the criminal compensation procedure after conviction.

According to the current Criminal Compensation and Honor Recovery Act (Criminal Compensation Law), criminal compensation is paid to victims who are found innocent by multiplying the number of days in detention after calculating the amount of compensation for detention. based on 8 hours of work per day. It is calculated based on the minimum wage for the year innocence was confirmed, and the daily minimum wage last year was 66,800 won. Depending on the age, occupation, life and losses of the victim during detention, compensation of up to five times the minimum wage is possible.

Prosecutor Ji-Hyun Seo, who is in charge of the Special Adviser for Gender Equality Policy in the Ministry of Justice. [연합뉴스]

Prosecutor Ahn has retired after winning the lawsuit for annulment of dismissal from the Ministry of Justice, so there is a possibility that criminal compensation will be set as the salary of the prosecutor is reflected. Given that the reported property is 5.1 billion won this year, it is difficult to receive up to five times the minimum wage, considering the standard of living, but criminal compensation of at least tens of million won is expected to be received. .

If the court accepts the security prosecutor’s request and issues a compensation decision, the criminal compensation will be paid by the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office, the prosecutor’s office in charge of the security prosecutor’s investigation. The amount of criminal compensation paid to victims who are not guilty by the prosecution due to the increase in the minimum wage is also increasing. The criminal compensation paid by the prosecution last year was 40 billion won. Compared to the previous year’s payment of 36.7 billion won, it was up almost 10%.

Attorney Choi Joo-pil (Merit of Law Firm) said: “You should think that criminal compensation is the minimum loss that the state gives to the defendant.” “Due to the trend of court rulings, the amount of compensation for the security prosecutor may not be as high as expected.” did.

Reporter Park Tae-in [email protected]