[Anchor]

Just a day before the passage of the law stripping prosecutors of their investigative powers, the National Assembly also passed the National Election Commission Special Counsel Act to investigate the ballot paper shortage incident. The problem is that this bill allows prosecutors to exceptionally conduct direct investigations. Critics point out that this contradictory legislation, rushed through the amendment process, will likely cause considerable confusion moving forward.

Reporter Kim Deok-hyeon takes a closer look.

[Reporter]

With the passage of the Criminal Procedure Act amendment, which centers on the complete separation of investigation and prosecution—meaning the total stripping of prosecutors' direct investigative powers—all prosecutors will be barred from conducting direct investigations starting this coming October.

However, the so-called National Election Commission Special Counsel Act, passed by the National Assembly through bipartisan agreement just a day prior, directly clashes with this principle.

The special counsel team for the National Election Commission, which is set to launch as early as the end of this month, can be dispatched up to 20 prosecutors. Under an exceptional supplementary provision stating that "the duties, authority, and obligation regulations of prosecutors at the time of the enforcement of the Special Counsel Act shall apply," the dispatched prosecutors are allowed to conduct direct investigations.

Because the investigative guidance of prosecutors, who are legal experts, is deemed necessary to produce results within a limited special counsel period, it led to the contradiction of exceptionally permitting direct investigative powers.

[Lee Geun-woo / Professor of Law, Gachon University (President of the Korean Criminal Procedure Law Association): They glossed it over by saying that investigative powers exist based on former regulations. I have never seen anything like this in my life. If a legal dispute arises, the court could go back to the fundamental principle and rule that prosecutors have no investigative powers.]

The Ministry of Justice had also previously raised similar concerns to the National Assembly before the bill was passed.

The Lee Jae-myung administration and the Democratic Party have actively utilized special counsel teams and joint investigation headquarters where prosecutors serve as the main investigative body whenever truth-finding or investigations were necessary.

If the amended Criminal Procedure Act goes into full effect this coming October without proper discussions regarding the investigative powers of prosecutors in special counsel and joint investigation teams, controversies arising from the contradictions of the amended law are expected to follow immediately—such as suspects targeted by the special counsel investigation raising objections to the legality of the dispatched prosecutors' investigation.

(Video Editing: Choi Hye-ran, Design: Seo Hyun-jung, Park Chun-woong)