Han Dong-hoon: "Democratic Party Bill Allows 'Unlimited Emergency Arrests' by Police"

Independent Representative Han Dong-hoon claimed that the Democratic Party of Korea has hidden a "bomb" in its proposed amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, which aims to abolish the prosecution's supplementary investigation powers, by allowing "unlimited emergency arrests by police without warrants."

On his social media today (July 19), Han wrote, "In the world created by the Democratic Party, police will be able to arrest citizens 'without warrants' indefinitely, without any oversight or scrutiny."

He was referring to the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, which was proposed by members of the Democratic Party's task force on the Criminal Procedure Act on July 9 and is currently under review by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly.

Current law stipulates that "if the police release a suspect arrested in an emergency without applying for an arrest warrant, they must immediately report it to a prosecutor."

In the proposed amendment, the phrasing has been changed from "report" to "notify" the prosecutor.

Han emphasized, "Currently, if the police arrest a citizen without a warrant, they must immediately (within 12 hours) obtain the approval of a prosecutor, and if they fail to obtain approval, they must release the suspect," adding that this is "a minimum safety belt to prevent the abuse of emergency arrests and protect the human rights of citizens."

He added, "While pushing for a ban on supplementary investigations, the Democratic Party has quietly removed the need for police to even obtain a prosecutor's approval after an emergency arrest," stating that they "secretly changed 'approval' to 'simple post-facto notification'."

Han expressed concern, saying, "If this happens, emergency arrests without warrants by the police will inevitably be abused," and "the damage will fall on the citizens."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.