"Relying Solely on Police Good Will... Would the Jang Yoon-gi Case Have Been Uncovered?"

[Anchor]

Once the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act passes, prosecutors will lose their supplementary investigation authority starting this coming October, leaving them only with the right to request it. The system is built on the grand premise that the police will faithfully comply with prosecutors' requests. Concerns are growing, particularly within the legal community, that relying solely on such police "good will" makes it impossible to prevent incidents like the Jang Yoon-gi case.

Reporting by Kim Deok-hyeon.

[Reporter]

A police officer father destroying evidence, systematic shoddy police investigations, and case records sent to prosecutors only after an exclusive report by SBS.

The truth of the Jang Yoon-gi case, which was nearly covered up, was brought to light through the prosecutors' supplementary investigation.

When the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act passes the National Assembly, this supplementary investigation authority of prosecutors will be completely abolished starting this coming October.

With investigations handled by the police and indictments by prosecutors, separating investigation from indictment, prosecutors will only be able to request supplementary investigations from the police.

However, if the primary investigative agency minimizes a case and conceals materials as in the Jang Yoon-gi case, prosecutors cannot grasp the reality of the situation and thus cannot even make a request for a supplementary investigation.

[Lee Chang-hyun / Professor, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Law School : (Prosecutors) cannot conduct supplementary investigations, so even if they try to delegate it, it works fine if the police officer is truly righteous and does a good job. But if they don't, there is no way to deal with it. We are left with no choice but to rely on the good will of the police officers.]

While supplementary measures following the abolition of supplementary investigations have been added, it is difficult to dispel concerns over institutional ping-pong and delayed processing.

Instead of supplementary investigations, prosecutors' "fact-finding rights" were newly included in the amendment, but they lack effectiveness as they cannot be used as evidence in court.

Amid continuing criticism, the Democratic Party stated it will require all seven major crimes targeting vulnerable groups to be forwarded to prosecutors. However, the Jang Yoon-gi case during the initial police investigation, to which only the murder charge was applied, does not fall under this category.

If public legal services provided to crime victims under the name of supplementary investigations disappear, victims will inevitably face heavier legal cost burdens.

[Yang Hong-seok / Lawyer (Former Advisory Member of the Prosecution Reform Promotion Unit) : Since it changes state involvement into a lower-level form, it might be slightly better for those with money or those who can invest more effort and time. (The amendment is ultimately) institutionalizing a lower level of service.]

The legal community points out that additional institutional checks must be established so that the system does not rely solely on police "good will," such as reflecting trial results in police personnel evaluations or having prosecutors participate in evaluations as in France.

(Video reporting: Lee Sang-hak, Video editing: Jang Hyun-ki, Design: Seo Seung-hyun, Park Tae-young)

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