The judgment of the court below is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Seoul Western District Court Panel Division.

Judgment ex officio is made.

1. Article 5-4(5) of the former Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes (amended by Act No. 13717, Jan. 6, 2016; hereinafter “former Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc.”) provides that where a person who has been sentenced more than three times to imprisonment for a crime under Articles 329 through 331 of the Criminal Act, once again commits such crime and is punished as a repeated crime, the punishment under paragraphs (1) through (4) of the same Article shall be imposed, and Article 329 (1) of the same Act provides that a person who habitually commits the crime under Articles 329 through 331 of the Criminal Act, or attempts to commit such crime, shall be punished by imprisonment for life or for not less than three years.

In this regard, Article 5-4(5) of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes (amended by Act No. 13717, Jan. 6, 2016; hereinafter “The Aggravated Punishment, etc.”) amended by Act No. 13717 of the same Act (hereinafter “Aggravated Punishment, etc.”) provides that where a repeated offender is punished, punishment shall be aggravated according to the classification of each subparagraph of the same paragraph, and subparagraph 1 of the same Article provides that where a person commits a crime under Articles 329 through 331 of the Criminal Act or an attempt thereof, he/she shall be punished by imprisonment for

The purpose of this, even if a repeated crime, such as larceny, which meets the requirements for criminal records as prescribed in Article 5-4(5) of the former Specific Crimes Aggravated Punishment Act, is to be considered as an anti-sexual measure taken from the fact that the previous penal provisions that the punishment of aggravated punishment by imprisonment for life or for not less than three years, is excessive.

Therefore, this constitutes “when an act does not constitute a crime due to an amendment of the law after the crime or when the punishment is more severe than the former law” under Article 1(2) of the Criminal Act, and thus, the provision on the aggravated punishment of specific crimes should also be applied to a crime before the amendment (see Supreme Court Decisions 2009Do12930, Mar. 11, 2010; 2013Do4862, Jul. 11, 2013; 2013Do101, Jul. 11, 2013).