[Anchor]
While the Democratic Party of Korea maintains its principle of completely abolishing the supplementary investigation rights of the prosecution, voices within the party calling for a more cautious approach are growing. Eleven Democratic Party lawmakers have proposed a bill that opposes a total abolition and allows for supplementary investigation rights in exceptional circumstances.
Park Jae-yeon has the details.
[Reporter]
Today, July 14, just five days after a bill centered on the total abolition of the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights was proposed by the Democratic Party, some party members jointly proposed an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act that would allow prosecutors to conduct supplementary investigations in exceptional cases.
The bill prohibits prosecutors from initiating investigations themselves, but maintains supplementary investigation rights for certain cases referred to them, such as crimes against socially vulnerable groups.
[Hong Ki-won / Democratic Party Lawmaker: If the result of a total ban on supplementary investigations leads to even one victim suffering unfairly, can we truly call that a successful reform?]
The cases eligible for supplementary investigation include sexual violence, violent crimes, child and elderly abuse, livelihood crimes such as voice phishing, cases nearing the statute of limitations, and cases where a victim has filed an objection.
Supplementary investigations are only permitted when the crime is identical to the one referred; if other charges are discovered, they must be investigated by an agency other than the prosecution.
It is essentially a policy of 'abolition in principle, limited permission.'
[Hong Ki-won / Democratic Party Lawmaker: There were several people who said they agreed with the content of the bill but could not participate in the joint proposal because they hold party positions.]
Including Representative Hong, the 11 lawmakers who participated as co-sponsors are Ko Min-jung, Kwak Sang-eon, Kim Nam-hee, Moon Jin-seok, and Mo Kyung-jong, among others.
[Ko Min-jung / Democratic Party Lawmaker: There are concerns in some quarters that there may be shortcomings in areas such as sexual violence, child abuse, and issues involving people with disabilities.]
While some within the Democratic Party argue that additional amendments to further strengthen the rights of crime victims are necessary, it remains uncertain whether such bills will actually be proposed given the party's official stance on the total abolition of supplementary investigation rights.
(Video coverage: Oh Young-chun, Kim Yong-woo | Video editing: Park Sun-soo | Graphics: Kim Min-young)
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