Interfering with Emergency Medical Care Can Result in Up to 5 Years in Prison…New Sentencing Guidelines for ‘Emergency Room Disturbances’

A new standard for penalties governing interference with emergency medical and rescue activities has been established, with the maximum penalty increasing to up to five years in prison. Prior to this, there was no standard for penalties applied to violent crimes occurring in emergency medical settings. According to the Korea JoongAng Daily, the Supreme Court's sentencing committee reviewed the proposal for establishing sentencing standards for emergency medical, rescue, and obstruction of rescue crimes last Friday during its 147th meeting.

The sentencing committee has now officially established sentencing standards for these crimes. The targeted crimes include violence resulting in injury or death against emergency medical personnel, obstructing emergency medical or rescue efforts, and physically assaulting a fireman or impeding fire-related rescue activities, all of which violate the Emergency Medical Services Act.

The committee set the basic penalty range for violence against emergency medical personnel at imprisonment from four months to one and a half years, with the possibility of increasing it to 10 months or less if mitigating circumstances are present, or to one to two and a half years in prison if aggravating factors are present. For obstructing the rescue efforts of emergency medical personnel or damaging medical facilities, the basic penalty range is set at imprisonment from six months to one and a half years, with the possibility of increasing it to eight months in the lower range and one to four years in the upper range if aggravating factors are present.

The committee also announced the establishment of sentencing standards for related offenses such as the illegal use of images or videos for blackmail or coercion, fabricating evidence, or using images for blackmail or coercion. The specific penalty ranges for each category will be determined in the future. The committee plans to hold its next meeting on November 21st to discuss penalties for violations of the Major Disaster Prevention Act.

Additionally, the committee has decided to include "major disaster-related offenses" and establish sentencing standards for such crimes, which were previously added to "negligent homicide and industrial safety and occupational health offenses."