People Power Party Proposes '3 Victim Protection Acts' in Countermove: "Cooperation Between Prosecution and Police for Serious Crimes"

[Anchor]

In response to the Democratic Party's push to abolish supplementary investigation powers, the People Power Party has proposed a package of legislative amendments dubbed the '3 Victim Protection Acts.' The proposal includes maintaining supplementary investigation powers and mandating cooperation between the prosecution and police from the initial stage of investigations for serious crimes, such as the Jang Yoon-gi case.

Reporter Park Chan-beom has the story.

[Reporter]

The People Power Party has officially proposed three legislative amendments—including revisions to the Criminal Procedure Act, the Act on the Establishment of the Major Crime Investigation Agency, and the Public Prosecution Service Act—as the '3 Victim Protection Acts' today (July 15).

This move emphasizes their stance that the Democratic Party's push to abolish supplementary investigation powers runs counter to the protection of crime victims.

While the Democratic Party's bill seeks to completely abolish the prosecution's investigative powers, the People Power Party's proposal allows for supplementary investigations, limited to cases transferred from the police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, as well as crimes committed by law enforcement officials.

Furthermore, for serious crimes such as the Jang Yoon-gi case, the bill mandates cooperation between the prosecution and police from the moment an investigation begins.

[Kwak Gyu-taek / Chairman of the Legal Advisory Committee, People Power Party: In cases of serious crimes, such as the murder of a high school girl in Gwangju, prosecutors should be able to participate from the moment judicial police officers initiate an investigation.]

The People Power Party explained that they have significantly expanded the scope of cases that must be transferred to the prosecution, including those where complainants or accusers have filed objections, to prevent cases from being buried or suppressed during the police investigation stage due to the destruction of evidence.

Additionally, the party stated that it would remove the authority to withdraw indictments entirely from the Criminal Procedure Act to prevent prosecutors from arbitrarily withdrawing charges or being pressured to do so.

[Park Chung-kwon / Chief Spokesperson, People Power Party: This is to prevent a special counsel bill aimed at withdrawing the indictment of Lee Jae-myung. If this bill is passed, the special counsel bill for withdrawing indictments will also become meaningless.]

However, with the People Power Party holding only 110 seats in the National Assembly, it is impossible to pass the bills unilaterally. Given the significant gap between their proposal and the Democratic Party's bill, prospects for an agreement remain distant.

(Reported by Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan | Video by Lee Seung-jin | Graphics by Choi Jin-hoe)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.