Foreign national gets two-year prison term for hit-and-run after eight-year illegal stay
An appeals court upheld a two-year prison sentence for an Uzbek national who injured a pedestrian in Gunsan, fled the scene and drove without a license.
A highway in Gunsan, North Jeolla in this photo not related to the article
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A foreign national without valid immigration status who struck and injured a person lying on a road before fleeing the scene has been sentenced to two years in prison on appeal, according to legal sources Wednesday.
The Jeonju District Court upheld a lower-court ruling sentencing the defendant, an Uzbek national, to two years in prison, rejecting prosecutors' appeal for a heavier sentence. The defendant was charged with causing injury while fleeing the scene, which violated the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, as well as violating the Immigration Act.
The convict was accused of hitting a person who was lying on a road in Osikdo-dong, Gunsan, North Jeolla, while driving at around 2:03 a.m. on Dec. 6 last year, and then fleeing the scene.
The victim suffered injuries so serious that the required length of treatment could not yet be determined.
Investigators found that the foreigner did not have a driver's license and had driven about 40 kilometers (24.2 miles) from Iksan Station in Iksan, North Jeolla, to the site of the accident.
The convict entered Korea in March 2018 on a D-4-1 visa for Korean language training at a university-affiliated language institute. The authorized period of stay expired in September of the same year, but the defendant remained in the country for eight additional years without valid immigration status.
The lower court sentenced the defendant to two years in prison.
"The defendant deserves strong criticism for remaining in the country for an extended period without valid immigration status, driving without a license, causing an accident that seriously injured the victim and then fleeing the scene," it said.
Prosecutors appealed, arguing that the sentence was too lenient.
The appeals court said the lower court had taken into account the victim's role in the accident, including the fact that the victim had been lying on a sparsely traveled road while wearing dark clothing.
"The lower court appears to have determined the sentence after considering all circumstances both favorable and unfavorable to the defendant," the court said. "We found no new circumstances on appeal that would warrant increasing the sentence."
BY JANG GU-SEUL [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
