People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok sharply criticized proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act that would strip prosecutors of their supplementary investigative powers, warning Tuesday that "if President Lee Jae-myung refuses to exercise his veto, the people will reject the Lee government." President Lee, however, signaled at a Cabinet meeting the same day that he would not use the veto, saying the amendments did not amount to "a serious enough situation to negate the National Assembly's legislative authority."
Speaking at an emergency forum held that morning at the National Assembly — titled "The Unconstitutionality of Abolishing Prosecutors' Supplementary Investigative Powers and Dismissal-of-Indictment Provisions, and a Call to Exercise the Presidential Veto" — Jang urged the president not to squander what he called a final opportunity. "I hope he does not kick away the people's last order and the last chance to prevent the Lee government from heading toward its own collapse," Jang said.
He added that "abolishing supplementary investigative powers will lead to the abolition of the government itself, and if grounds for dismissal of indictment are expanded to erase 'Lee Jae-myung's crimes,' the people will begin erasing the Lee Jae-myung government."
The forum was co-hosted by the PPP's policy committee and lawmakers including Na Kyung-won and Kim Mi-ae. Na said "the gates of hell have ultimately opened," criticizing the Democratic Party for pushing through the Criminal Procedure Act amendments despite opposition from a majority of the public and the resignations of both the justice minister and the acting prosecutor general.
Kim said, "What ruling party in the world sacrifices the basic rights of the people for an intraparty leadership race?" She argued that with checks on power now gone, "powerful criminal suspects and defendants gain a solid shield, while ordinary citizens and powerless victims are left with nothing but grievance."
Experts at the forum were united in warning that the amendments risk being used as a political tool. Ji Seong-woo, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University School of Law, said the very suspicion that a procedural law like the Criminal Procedure Act is being used to steer the outcome of a specific case "fundamentally undermines public trust in both the legislature and the judiciary." He called for an explicit provision barring the amendments from applying to cases already indicted before the law takes effect, saying such a clause would "institutionally guarantee that the legislation is not targeting a specific trial."
Park Yong-cheol, a professor at Sogang University School of Law, cited the absence of any oversight body for police and the likely worsening of delays in criminal proceedings as foreseeable side effects. "Supplementary investigations by the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency are realistically impossible," he said, adding that expanding grounds for dismissal of indictment "will ultimately lead to a broader expansion of judicial discretion."
mp1256@heraldcorp.com
