[Screen capture from Kim Yong-min's social media]
[Screen capture from Kim Yong-min's social media]

The victim in the "Busan spinning-kick case" has publicly lashed out at Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Yong-min, leaving an angry comment on his social media post after the National Assembly passed a bill he sponsored that strips prosecutors of their direct investigation authority.

According to political sources, Kim posted photos on social media from a visit Saturday to the tomb of former President Roh Moo-hyun at Bongha Village in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, writing, "I have finished all the homework you gave me."

Kim added that he had returned to the tomb Sunday morning to present the newly passed amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure, writing, "President Roh Moo-hyun, you must be saying, 'Yeah~ I feel great~!!!'"

The post drew attention when Kim Jin-ju (a pseudonym), the victim in the Busan spinning-kick case, left a comment reading, "Go to hell." Kim has consistently opposed abolishing prosecutors' supplementary investigation authority, and her comment was widely interpreted as a direct rebuke of the bill's passage.

The amendment, which passed the National Assembly's plenary session Friday, centers on eliminating prosecutors' authority to conduct direct and supplementary investigations. Under the new law, prosecutors may request that police carry out supplementary investigations but may not conduct such investigations themselves.

The bill also allows prosecutors to refer supplementary investigation requests to other investigative agencies when thorough follow-up work would be difficult — but critics say such measures fall short of filling the gap in victims' rights protections.

Kim had also spoken out against abolishing the supplementary investigation authority at a July 23 National Assembly forum titled "Desirable Directions for Reforming the Code of Criminal Procedure, as Seen by Crime Victims."

"Thanks to the supplementary investigation authority, the charges against my attacker were upgraded from 'bodily injury' to 'attempted murder in the course of rape,'" she said. "Without that supplementary investigation, I would never have known I was a victim of a sex crime, and the perpetrator would already be back at my side."

She added that abolishing the authority could force victims to hire lawyers and gather evidence on their own from the police investigation stage onward. "We need a mechanism to verify the judgment of one agency one more time," she said.


bbo@heraldcorp.com