Detention periods are shorter than you think

When a warrant is issued, the family feels that a long fight has begun. For the person inside, a single day feels as long as a week. Yet the detention period during the investigation stage is kept short by law. That shortness puts pressure on both the investigators and the suspect's side.

Ten days with the police, ten days with the prosecutor

The police must release a suspect if they do not hand the suspect over to the prosecutor within ten days of detention (Article 202 of the Criminal Procedure Act), and the prosecutor must release the suspect if no indictment is filed within ten days of receiving the case (Article 203). If a request for supplementary investigation or the like is needed, the period may be extended once, by no more than ten days, with a judge's permission (Article 205).

The time the documents were at the court for the pre-detention hearing (영장실질심사) and the period of a review of the legality of detention (구속적부심사) are not counted in this detention period (Article 201-2(7) and Article 214-2(13)). So the date counted on a calendar and the actual expiry date can be several days apart. When we take on a detention case, we calculate this expiry date at the first meeting.

What the shortness means

Investigators pack their questioning into this period. The detained person is called out several times at short intervals and asked the same questions while exhausted. Work that would be spread over several months in a case without detention is compressed into just over ten days.

Defense counsel can also be present during questioning while in detention. The most important work in this period is to realign the direction of statements through meetings between sessions and to check points where earlier answers wavered. The more sessions there are, the easier it is for inconsistencies with earlier statements to arise, so at each meeting we go back over what was asked and how it was answered. The person inside does not know what is happening outside, so it is also defense counsel's job to pass on, at meetings, the materials the family has gathered and the progress of settlement talks.

Written opinions and settlements are timed to the clock too

A settlement agreement submitted before the decision on whether to indict is used differently from one submitted after. The former is taken into account in deciding whether to indict, and the latter in deciding the sentence at trial. This is why settlements are pursued urgently in detention cases.

If new circumstances have arisen since the warrant was issued, such as a settlement or restoration of the victim's losses, a review of the legality of detention is also considered within this period. After indictment the route is bail instead, so which procedure to use also depends on the date.

The clock changes after indictment

After indictment, the court's detention period applies. It is two months as a base, and if continued detention is necessary it may be renewed for two months at a time at each level of trial (Article 92 of the Criminal Procedure Act). From this point, bail can be requested.

Preparing a detention case ultimately means counting the days backwards. If you work back from the expiry date to decide when to handle questioning, written opinions, settlement and the review of detention, the family will also know what to prepare by when.