PPP calls prosecution bill a 'legislative outrage' as it heads for floor vote
The People Power Party condemned the Democratic Party’s move to curb prosecutors’ supplementary investigation powers and vowed procedural resistance ahead of a plenary vote.
People Power Party lawmakers chant slogans outside the National Assembly room where the Legislation and Judiciary Committee was meeting in full session on July 29 to protest an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act that would abolish prosecutors' authority to conduct supplementary investigations.LIM HYUN-DONG
The People Power Party (PPP) went on the offensive Wednesday against an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act that would strip prosecutors of their power to conduct supplementary investigations, a night after the ruling Democratic Party (DP) pushed the bill through a National Assembly subcommittee on its own.
"Now, whatever President Lee Jae Myung does, he will get a free pass," PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok said at a news conference at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Wednesday.
"People with money and criminals will slip through the net, and investigations into abuse of power will come to a complete stop. They want to build a world where only they enjoy power. If they do not stop dismantling the prosecution service and stripping away supplementary investigation authority immediately, the public will no longer tolerate it."
He went further and cast the whole package as an attack on the constitutional order.
"Destroying the constitutional order to give Lee Jae Myung a free pass, a constitutional amendment to let him serve another term, destroying the judicial order, dismantling the prosecution service and stripping away supplementary investigation authority are all effectively acts of insurrection," the PPP leader said.
The DP passed the amendment through the committee's first bill review subcommittee on its own late Tuesday night. PPP members, who had argued for keeping supplementary investigation authority in place, walked out en masse and said the DP had scripted the outcome in advance and used them as window dressing for a full day.
The conservative party's members on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee held their own news conference at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
"This is a legislative outrage that runs against the public will, and it is nothing more than the DP's private revenge on the prosecution service," the lawmakers said. "Why does a bill that changes the very foundation of the criminal justice system and does grave harm to the public have to be rushed through to fit one political party's convention schedule?"
People Power Party members of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee raise their hands on July 29 at the National Assembly to request debate on an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act that would abolish prosecutors' authority to conduct supplementary investigations.YONHAP
They also rejected the DP's plan for follow-up legislation to create a legal basis for supplementary investigation, describing it as a fiction.
"Setting up a dedicated supplementary investigation unit at the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency has a fundamental problem, which is that the Public Prosecution Service would have to decide whether to indict based on a judgment made by a second agency rather than its own," said Park Hyeung-soo, the PPP's secretary on the committee.
The party dismissed another remedy as well, a DP proposal to require police to refer to prosecutors every case in seven categories of crime against vulnerable people: child abuse, domestic violence, sex crimes, child sex offenses, stalking, abuse of people with disabilities and elder abuse.
"Crime is not divided into the socially weak and the socially strong. It is divided into perpetrators and victims," Park said. "What is supposed to happen with all the other crimes?"
The PPP said it would file a request to convene a bill mediation committee to block passage at the full committee session later Wednesday. Under the National Assembly Act, such a committee can hold a bill for up to 90 days.
The flag of the Prosecution Services flies outside the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on July 29.NEWS1
"The DP and committee chair Seo Young-kyo should convene a mediation committee so that both sides can work out effective alternatives for protecting victims and preventing gaps in investigations, and should guarantee the 90-day review period the law intends," the committee members said.
The DP convened the mediation committee as requested, then joined with the Rebuilding Korea Party to close debate and push the amendment through. A mediation committee seats six members, with four votes enough to move a bill immediately.
The party's floor leadership and its committee members carried protest placards into the committee room that read, "Supplementary investigation authority is the last hope for crime victims."
PPP Rep. Cho Bae-sook, a five-term lawmaker, urged the president to veto the bill.
"They are sacrificing the criminal justice system to win control of the party at the convention," Cho said.
The DP plans to push the amendment through Thursday's plenary session along with a National Assembly Act revision that would shorten the fast-track period and tighten the requirements for a filibuster. The PPP intends to answer with a three-day filibuster.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
