11 Democratic Party Lawmakers Propose Bill to Partially Allow Supplementary Investigation Rights

[Anchor]

While the Democratic Party maintains its principle of completely abolishing the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights, voices within the party are calling for a more cautious approach. Eleven Democratic Party lawmakers have proposed a bill that opposes a total ban and allows for supplementary investigation rights in exceptional circumstances.

Park Jae-yeon reports.

[Reporter]

Just five days after the Democratic Party proposed an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act aimed at completely abolishing the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights, some party members jointly proposed a separate amendment today (July 14) that would allow prosecutors to conduct supplementary investigations in exceptional cases.

The bill prohibits prosecutors from initiating investigations, but maintains supplementary investigation rights for certain referred cases, such as crimes against socially vulnerable groups.

[Hong Ki-won/Democratic Party Lawmaker: If a total ban on supplementary investigations results in 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 elder abuse, livelihood crimes such as voice phishing, cases where the statute of limitations is about to expire, and cases where a victim has filed an objection.

Supplementary investigations are only permitted when the crime is identical to the one referred to the prosecution. If other charges are discovered, the case must be investigated by a different investigative agency, not the prosecution.

In essence, it is 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, a total of 11 Democratic Party lawmakers participated as co-sponsors, including Ko Min-jung, Kwak Sang-eon, Kim Nam-hee, Moon Jin-seok, and Mo Kyung-jong.

[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.]

Within the party, there are voices suggesting the need for additional amendments to further strengthen the rights of crime victims. However, given the party's official stance of completely abolishing supplementary investigation rights, it remains uncertain whether these will lead to actual legislative proposals.

(Video reporting: Oh Young-chun, Kim Yong-woo | Video editing: Park Sun-soo | Graphics: Kim Min-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.