Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho answers lawmakers' questions at a plenary session of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. People Power Party members boycotted the session. [Yonhap]
Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho answers lawmakers' questions at a plenary session of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. People Power Party members boycotted the session. [Yonhap]

The Democratic Party of Korea convened a National Assembly standing committee session Wednesday to begin deliberations on revising the Code of Criminal Procedure, as part of what the party calls a prosecutorial reform drive to abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers. The session also exposed divisions within the ruling camp over the case of Jang Yun-gi, convicted of murdering a high school girl.

At a plenary session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the Democratic Party referred 55 bills to the committee's first bill-review subcommittee, including a Criminal Procedure Act amendment jointly sponsored by its own lawmaker Kim Yong-min and Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Park Eun-jung. The amendment centers on abolishing prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers.

The proposed amendment would completely eliminate prosecutors' authority to conduct direct and supplementary investigations, consolidating investigative power under the police. If enacted, prosecutors would be limited to filing and maintaining indictments while retaining the right to request supplementary investigations from police.

The bill also calls for placing human rights protection officers at each investigative agency to handle complaints about rights violations and egregious abuses of investigative authority, and to strengthen human rights protections and due process guarantees during warrant enforcement.

It also proposes establishing indictment review panels at each district court to deliberate on and rule whether a prosecutor's decision to indict is appropriate, with the final indictment decision to follow the panel's ruling. The bill also includes provisions codifying deadlines for completing investigations and indictment proceedings.

Separately from the Kim-Park bill, the Democratic Party is drafting its own Criminal Procedure Act amendment based on discussions by an in-house task force set up to handle the revision. The task force plans to introduce the bill this week, and it is expected to be reviewed jointly with the Kim-Park bill in the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

Han Byung-do, the Democratic Party's acting leader and floor leader, said Tuesday that "the complete abolition of supplementary investigation powers is an unwavering principle of the Democratic Party, and there is no dissent within the party." Earlier, floor policy chief Kim Han-gyu had stressed that the party had "no plan to pass the bill after the party convention" on Aug. 17.

The committee also referred to the subcommittee a separate Criminal Procedure Act amendment introduced by Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Cha Gyu-geun, which likewise centers on abolishing supplementary investigation powers.

An amendment to the special prosecutor act was also sent to the subcommittee. It would expand the scope of investigations and the number of seconded civil servants for a comprehensive special prosecutor probe covering allegations remaining after three earlier special counsel investigations, and would introduce a new category of prosecution-maintenance attorneys. The bill was introduced in March and does not include provisions to extend the special prosecutor's investigation period. However, given that the special prosecutor's office recently asked the committee to revise the law to allow a further extension, discussions on that issue are expected to proceed in the subcommittee as well.

People Power Party members staged a loud protest outside the committee room before the session opened, demanding that the Democratic Party "immediately stop its unilateral operation of standing committees." When Democratic Party member Seo Yeong-gyo, the committee chair, moved to open the session, PPP members entered the chamber, triggering a standoff between the two sides.

The session also laid bare differences among ruling-camp lawmakers over calls for caution on abolishing supplementary investigation powers — a position that has gained some traction in the wake of the Jang Yun-gi case.

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-hee cited the case and said "no investigative agency should be allowed to wield unchecked power in the course of reform." Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Park Eun-jung took a different view, arguing that "prosecutorial reform is about resolving structural problems" and that "this case should not be used as a reason to hand investigative powers back to prosecutors."

The committee also voted, under Democratic Party leadership, to constitute the first subcommittee. Chair Seo announced that "the subcommittee will begin meeting on Friday," referring to July 10.

The committee had originally planned to vote Wednesday on some 40 bills that had cleared other standing committees, but put that plan on hold. The Democratic Party's floor leadership had asked the committee to delay action as it sought to reach a schedule agreement with the People Power Party ahead of a plenary session it is pushing to hold Thursday.

Meanwhile, the committee voted to file a perjury complaint against Kim Tae-young, head of interior design firm 21 Gram, which is implicated in allegations surrounding the relocation of former President Yoon Suk Yeol's official residence. Kim is accused of falsely testifying at the committee's national audit last October, answering "no" when asked whether 21 Gram had carried out construction work to expand the residence.


hss@heraldcorp.com