The Legislation Committee Begins Review of 'Law Distortion Crime' Proposal
Pressure Including Special Prosecutor Law on Ssangbangwool's North Korea Remittance
Prosecutorial Dictatorship Countermeasures Committee Announces Prosecutor Accusation
The Democratic Party of Korea has launched a speed campaign for prosecutorial reform. In response to the prosecution's request for a two-year prison sentence against Representative Lee Jae-myung on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act, the Democratic Party judged that the prosecution cannot guarantee fairness as it undermines political neutrality and conducts biased investigations and prosecutions. The party plans to complete legislative reforms on prosecutorial reform, including the complete separation of the prosecution's investigative and prosecutorial powers, within the regular session of the National Assembly.
According to political circles on the 23rd, the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee began reviewing the so-called 'Law Distortion Crime' bill, a revision of the Criminal Act, which was introduced by Representative Lee Geon-tae. This bill, led by the Democratic Party's Prosecutorial Reform Task Force (TF), stipulates that if prosecutors or other investigative agencies distort the application of the law for the purpose of punishment or exemption from punishment during investigation or prosecution, they shall be punished by imprisonment for up to 10 years or disqualification.
In response, a professional committee member of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee stated at the plenary meeting, "The partial amendment to the Prosecutors' Office Act, introduced by Representative Jang Kyung-tae in the first item of the agenda, is recognized for its purpose of preventing abuse of prosecutorial authority by mandating the inclusion of the conviction rate relative to prosecuted cases as a criterion for evaluating prosecutors' work performance." However, it was also pointed out that mandating the reflection of the conviction rate might lead prosecutors to deviate from objectivity due to concerns about its impact on their service evaluations and personnel matters.
The sentencing hearing for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act was held on the 20th at the Seoul Central District Court. Before entering the courtroom, Lee was seen looking at his watch while listening to reporters' questions. Behind him stood senior members and party officials of the Democratic Party. Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@
The background for the Democratic Party accelerating pressure on the prosecution is that the court has scheduled the first trial verdict on November 15 regarding Representative Lee's charges of violating the Public Official Election Act. Since the prosecution requested the highest level of sentence, two years, against Representative Lee on the 20th, the party leadership is evaluated to have stepped up efforts to respond to Lee's judicial risks.
Accordingly, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee plans to discuss the 'False Accusation Crime by Investigative Agencies' bill, proposed by Representative Kim Yong-min, head of the Prosecutorial Reform TF, which punishes evidence fabrication and forced testimony by investigative agencies. Representative Kim pointed out that there are indications of evidence fabrication and perjury coercion in various parts of investigations by the prosecution and police. He cited the so-called 'Seoul City Spy Fabrication Case' and the incident involving former Gyeonggi Province Peace Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young's drinking party persuasion as examples, in which he participated as a defense attorney.
Along with this, the special investigation law on Ssangbangwool's North Korea remittance case will also be submitted to the plenary meeting on the same day. It was proposed by Representative Lee Sung-yoon and 14 others. The party believes that the prosecution fabricated the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case as a targeted investigation against Representative Lee. The bill aims to investigate allegations that the prosecution coerced false testimony related to Lee Hwa-young and former Ssangbangwool Chairman Kim Sung-tae in the Kim Sung-tae North Korea remittance case.
There are also expectations to speed up the impeachment procedures against the prosecutors who investigated Representative Lee. Democratic Party members of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee are preparing to submit and process a proposal to hold an investigative hearing on December 2 for the impeachment motion against Prosecutor Park Sang-yong, who was in charge of the North Korea remittance investigation of Representative Lee. Previously, the party designated Prosecutors Park, Kim Young-chul, Kang Baek-shin, and Eom Hee-jun as corrupt prosecutors and filed impeachment motions against them.
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