Section 3 Court-Appointed Defense Counsel System for Suspects

In order to effectively secure the right of both suspects and defendants to receive the support of lawyers and realize more enhanced and prompt criminal trials, a system of assigning court-appointed defense counsels to detained suspects was introduced on October 2, 2006. Cases covered by the system initially were those involving offenses punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment or imprisonment for a minimum term of one year or more with or without work, but the scope was then expanded to include those punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment or imprisonment for a maximum term of over three years with or without work on May 21, 2009.