The defendant is innocent. The summary of this judgment shall be notified publicly.

1. The summary of the facts charged is that the Defendant received a written notice of enlistment in active duty service under the name of the head of the regional military affairs office in Daegu-gu, that “I will enlist in active duty service as an association on December 26, 2016,” from the Defendant’s office around November 21, 2016, and did not enlist until December 29, 2016, which is the date of entering the military service without justifiable grounds.

2. The Defendant’s gist of the Defendant’s assertion rejected enlistment according to religious conscience that he cannot participate in the war practice to kill people.

Defendant’s act constitutes “justifiable cause” under Article 88(1) of the Military Service Act by exercising the right to conscientious objection based on the freedom of conscience under the Constitution.

Since it should be viewed that crime is not constituted.

3. Determination

A. Article 88(1) of the Military Service Act construed as “justifiable cause” under Article 88(1) of the same Act provides that a person who fails to enlist in active duty service or fails to comply with a call-up notice, despite having received a notice of enlistment or call-up in active duty service, shall be punished.

In a case where a person who refuses enlistment or call-up is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution as a reason of refusal, and the punishment of such person by applying Article 88(1) of the Military Service Act to him/her would result in an unreasonable infringement on his/her constitutional rights, the “justifiable cause” under Article 88(1) of the Military Service Act shall be deemed to exist to exclude such unconstitutional situation.

B. Article 19 of the Constitution on whether a defendant’s objection to military service constitutes the freedom of conscience under the Constitution is “All citizens have the freedom of conscience.”

“In this context, conscience” may be a human belief or religious belief in the world and includes other internal ethical judgments related to the formation of an individual’s personality.

Whether conscience is formed by any source or not, there should be a stimulity to the extent that his value of existence as a human being is deteriorated and not acting accordingly.