萬國法律事務所

In the past, some felony criminals have successfully left Taiwan after being convicted and before the judgments were enforced. After the discussions between the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Judicial Yuan, a decision was reached to revise the Criminal Procedure Law and some new measures are to be added to prevent this situation.

The new measures will include three major aspects: 1. the use of electronic devices to track defendants’ whereabouts; 2. prosecutors will arrest criminals whose crimes carry possible sentences of imprisonment for more than 5 years; 3. prosecutors may arrest criminals who are involved in cases attracting social attention, even if they are convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for less than 5 years, depending on the situation.

The Department of Prosecutorial Affairs of the MOJ is drafting amendments to Articles 457 to 459 of the Criminal Procedure Law. Some senior judges, however, believe that according to the relevant laws, the prosecutors may start to enforce the conviction after receiving the main judgment without waiting for the entire judgments and documents to be served.

Convicted criminals have been able to avoid sanctions due to the delay by the prosecutors, who always wait for the service of the entire judgment and documents before they begin to enforce judgments, a shortage of police manpower, as well as a lack of boarder control. Therefore, these judges have opined, this problem can be dealt with effectively without a need to revise the law.