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Regarding the expansion of grounds for declaring the dismissal of an indictment included in this amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, the National Assembly requested 'review data' from the court, noting that 'tremendous changes' are expected in trials. However, it has been confirmed that this data was submitted just one hour before the bill passed.
Reporter Ha Jeongyeon.
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At the 3rd meeting of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's Bill Review Subcommittee on the 15th, where the first discussions took place regarding the 'expansion of grounds for the court to declare the dismissal of an indictment.'
According to the meeting minutes, Subcommittee Chairman Kim Seung-won of the Democratic Party stated regarding the grounds for declaring the dismissal of an indictment in the Criminal Procedure Act amendment that 'tremendous changes in trials are expected.'
The amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act passed by the National Assembly added two new grounds to the existing reasons for dismissal: 'prosecution through serious unlawful investigation' and 'prosecution that significantly deviates from prosecutorial discretion.'
During the subcommittee meeting, lawmaker Kim cited examples such as 'the cancellation of a trial based on tainted evidence,' and also mentioned that 'a door has been opened to even reach such lengths.'
He then requested Ki Woo-jong, Deputy Minister of Court Administration, to specifically research how trials would change, what is expected, and what areas need supplementation, asking for a review report by early next week.
SBS has obtained the relevant document prepared by the National Court Administration titled 'Review Related to the Legislation of Abuse of Prosecutorial Power.'
It was confirmed that this document was submitted to the National Assembly at around 3:38 PM, long after the 'early next week' target of the 20th based on the 3rd subcommittee meeting.
This was a mere hour before the Criminal Procedure Act amendment passed the National Assembly.
Consequently, the review data that was officially requested under the premise that 'tremendous changes in trials are expected' was not utilized in the deliberation of the bill.
According to the subcommittee meeting minutes, it was also found that no lawmakers separately checked whether the data had been submitted from the 3rd to the 9th subcommittee meetings where deliberations took place.
The National Court Administration included cases of acknowledgment and non-acknowledgment of abuse of prosecutorial power in the data. Regarding the amendment, it attached a review opinion stating that 'it can be seen as adopting judicial terminology to specifically categorize them,' while adding that 'it is a matter to be decided through legislative policy after thoroughly examining both the pros and cons resulting from the legal revision.'
Lawmaker Kim's side even claimed on social media that SBS's reporting on the National Assembly meeting minutes regarding the 'addition of grounds for dismissal of an indictment' was a 'distortion through cherry-picking.' However, lawmaker Kim's remarks featured in the report were copied directly from the meeting minutes and are publicly available on the National Assembly website.
(Photo: Oh Young-chun, Video Editing: Park Sun-su, Design: Kang Yoon-jung, Seo Seung-hyun)
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