Lawyer Park Jun-young asks Assemblyman Kim Yong-min to "consider the 'original intention' during the Prosecution Reform Committee"... "The goal is not to reduce prosecutorial power"

"Prosecutors' past determination to punish wrongdoing should not be used merely to aim at reducing prosecutorial powers"
"Investigation and prosecution are a series of processes... Prosecution without a decision-making process on whether to prosecute is an empty concept"
"The current 'confusion' is reflected as 'concern' in the statement at that time"

Attorney Park Jun-young.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, legal affairs specialist] Park Jun-young, a lawyer famous for specializing in retrials (age 47, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 35), has urged Kim Yong-min, a member of the Democratic Party who is pushing for the forced passage of the "Complete Removal of Prosecutorial Investigation Rights (Geomsu Wanbak)," to revisit the original intentions they shared four years ago when they served together on the Prosecutorial Reform Committee.

On the early morning of the 19th, Park posted a piece titled "Original Intention" on his Facebook, introducing his connection with Kim by saying, "I once worked with Kim Yong-min, with whom I have grown distant, as members of the Prosecutorial Reform Committee."

He said, "At that time, the chairman was Song Doo-hwan, former Constitutional Court Justice and current Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission. In July 2018, we announced our stance on the investigation rights adjustment plan."

Park recalled, "At that time, we emphasized that in discussing prosecutorial reform measures, the goal could not simply be to divide and reduce the powers of the prosecution itself, and if the reform of the prosecution was limited to punishing past wrongdoings by transferring powers to other agencies, there was a risk that those agencies might also misuse investigation rights, leading to greater danger, confusion, and further trial and error."

He continued, "We also stressed that investigations must be subject to appropriate judicial control to minimize infringement on citizens' fundamental rights during the process, and that a thorough investigation and review should be conducted on any defects or problems caused by the existing one-way prosecutorial investigation command. We expressed concerns about the idea that reform could be achieved simply by abolishing the investigation command and granting investigation and investigation termination rights to the police."

He added, "Furthermore, investigation is a series of criminal procedures to determine whether to prosecute, and prosecution rights without the process of determining whether to prosecute are inherently hollow. We pointed out that the investigation rights adjustment plan at the time could cause confusion in the field and increase the risk of procedural delays."

Park said, "Finally, while emphasizing the need to clearly define the scope of direct investigations by the prosecution, we urged that prosecutorial reform should not simply aim to reduce prosecutorial powers by prioritizing the will to punish past prosecutorial wrongdoings, but rather should prioritize minimizing the possibility of infringing on citizens' fundamental rights throughout the criminal procedure from investigation to prosecution, and ensuring that prosecutorial powers are exercised without political, economic, or other biases. To achieve this, we must carefully consider which system is the most excellent and desirable."

At the end of his post, he appealed, "I ask Representative Kim Yong-min to review the 'Prosecutorial Reform Committee's Position' agreed upon and announced by Chairman Song Doo-hwan and the committee members," saying, "It contains the 'original intention'."

He also stated, "The current confusion is reflected as 'concerns' in the position statement at that time" and attached the full text of the "Prosecutorial Reform Committee's Position on the Government's Adjustment Plan for Prosecutorial and Police Investigation Rights," announced by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Prosecutorial Reform Committee on July 3, 2018.