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As concerns grow over allegedly shoddy and downsized police investigations following the killing of a female high school student in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, the Democratic Party of Korea plans to introduce a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act on the 9th, centered on abolishing prosecutors' supplementary investigation authority. Amid concerns within and outside the party, the Democratic Party's position is to maintain its policy of abolishing supplementary investigation authority while supplementing it in a direction that gives substance to the right to request supplementary investigations.
Kim Han-gyu, the Democratic Party's deputy floor policy chief, met with reporters after a policy coordination meeting that day and said, "The task force on revising the Criminal Procedure Act has held several internal meetings so far. We will hold a final meeting at 2 p.m. (today) to finalize the revision bill and plan to introduce it today if possible."
He added, "Since the 'Jang Yun-gi case' has raised many questions about the need for supplementary investigation authority, people ask whether the Democratic Party's policy of abolition is being maintained, but the party's abolition policy has not changed." He continued, "Our basic policy is to consider ways to give substance to the right to request supplementary investigations, and to review more thoroughly the issues of objections by complainants and victims and the protection of human rights, and to reflect these in the bill."
Kim said, "Supplementary investigation authority alone does not seem to be the only solution," and added, "We are considering ways to give substance to the process so that prosecutors identify problems through supplementary investigation requests and police have no choice but to comply. Our thinking is that it may be more important not to assign cases to interested parties or to investigation teams from which a fair investigation cannot be expected."
The revision will be introduced as the party's Criminal Procedure Act revision task force bill. Kim said, "You can consider it a task force bill, and it will be introduced under the name of the floor leadership." He said, "Rep. Park Sang-hyuk from the policy committee, myself from the floor leadership, Lee Hae-sik, secretary of the Public Administration and Security Committee, and Kim Seung-won, secretary of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, are discussing it together," adding, "It reflects the opinions of the relevant standing committees rather than individual views, and since various lawmakers have individually offered opinions and expressed concerns, we are trying to reflect them as much as possible." Whether it will become the party's official position will be decided later.
Regarding the timing of the bill's handling, he said, "Starting tomorrow, we will hold the legislative subcommittee and review of the Criminal Procedure Act revision is scheduled," adding, "It doesn't seem to be a situation where we can pinpoint a specific timing for handling." He continued, "At the Legislation and Judiciary Committee yesterday, we said that if necessary we would hold meetings twice a week for swift review, and since the Criminal Procedure Act is also one of the important bills, we plan to review it quickly."
In related remarks, floor spokesperson Lee Ju-hee added, "On the floor, we reiterate that we will prepare thorough alternatives to the various side effects that could arise after abolishing supplementary investigation authority and to the recent situation that citizens are concerned about, and that we will deliberate swiftly but sufficiently."
