A defendant shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year and six months.

Punishment of the crime

The Defendant is a “shovah’s Witness.”

On July 23, 2015, the Defendant, as a person subject to enlistment in active duty service, failed to enlist, without justifiable grounds, by not later than three days after the date of enlistment, to which he received a notice of enlistment in the name of the head of the regional military affairs office, to enlistment in the 17 association unit located in Bupyeong-gu Incheon Metropolitan Government on September 22, 2015.

Summary of Evidence

1. Partial statement of the defendant;

1. A written accusation;

1. Application of Acts and subordinate statutes that inquire about military register and notify enlistment in active service;

1. Determination as to the defendant's assertion on criminal facts under Article 88 (1) 1 of the Military Service Act

1. The gist of the Defendant’s assertion was that the Defendant refused to enlist in the military in accordance with his religious conscience as a witness of Jehovahovah’s. Such conscientious objection constitutes “justifiable cause” under Article 88(1) of the Military Service Act and does not constitute a crime.

2. As to the so-called conscientious objection according to conscience, the Constitutional Court decided that Article 88(1) of the Military Service Act, which is a provision punishing evasion of enlistment, does not violate the Constitution (see Constitutional Court Order 2008Hun-Ga22, August 30, 201). The Supreme Court decided that conscientious objection according to conscience does not constitute “justifiable cause” as provided for exceptions to punishment under the above provision, and the right to be exempted from the application of the above provision is not derived from the provision of Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the Republic of Korea is a member, and that even if the United Nations Commission on the Freedom of Freedom proposed a recommendation of the Code, this does not have any legal binding force (see Supreme Court Decision 2004Do2965, Jul. 15, 2004; Supreme Court Decision 2008Hun-Ga8, Nov. 28, 2007).