Review Data Reached Parliament Just Before Passage of Bill

[Anchor]

The latest amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act includes provisions to expand the grounds on which courts can dismiss indictments. During the review process, the Legislation and Judiciary Subcommittee of the National Assembly noted that "massive changes to trials are expected" and asked the court on the 15th to research and report on how trials would change and what supplementary measures were needed. However, this review data was submitted to the National Assembly only today (the 31st), right before the bill's passage.

Ha Jeongyeon has an exclusive report.

[Reporter]

At the 3rd meeting of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's Bill Review Subcommittee held on the 15th, initial discussions took place regarding the "expansion of grounds for court dismissal of indictments."

According to the meeting minutes, Subcommittee Chairperson Kim Seung-won of the Democratic Party stated regarding the grounds for indictment dismissal under the Criminal Procedure Act amendment that "massive changes to trials are expected."

The Criminal Procedure Act amendment passed by the National Assembly today adds two new grounds for indictment dismissal: "indictment filed through serious illegal investigation" and "indictment filed in significant deviation from prosecutorial discretionary power."

During the subcommittee meeting, Representative Kim cited examples such as the "nullification of trials based on tainted evidence," adding that "a door has even been opened to such possibilities."

He then asked Ki Woo-jong, Deputy Director of the National Court Administration, to specifically research "how trials will change under these circumstances, what is expected, and what areas need supplementation," requesting that the review be reported by early next week.

SBS obtained the relevant document titled "Review Related to Legislation of Abuse of Indictment Power" prepared by the National Court Administration today.

It was confirmed that this material was submitted to the National Assembly only around 3:38 PM today, long after the "early next week" deadline of the 20th based on the 3rd subcommittee meeting.

This was a mere hour before the Criminal Procedure Act amendment passed the National Assembly.

The review data, formally requested under the premise that "massive changes to trials are expected," ultimately could not be utilized in the bill's deliberation.

According to the subcommittee minutes, it was found that no lawmakers separately checked whether the material 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 indictment power in the document, attaching the review opinion that while the amendment "can be seen as borrowing terminology from judicial precedents to concretely categorize them," it is "a matter to be decided through legislative policy by comprehensively examining the pros and cons arising from the legal revision."

Meanwhile, Representative Kim's side claimed on social media yesterday that SBS's report on the National Assembly meeting minutes regarding the "addition of grounds for indictment dismissal" was "spliced together" and distorted, but Representative Kim's remarks featured in the report were copied directly from the meeting minutes, which are publicly available on the National Assembly website.

(Photo courtesy of Oh Young-chun | Video Editing by Park Sun-su | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung and Seo Seung-hyun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.