Lawmakers pass a bill revising the Criminal Procedure Act during a plenary session in the afternoon of July 31 at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul.NEWS1
The revision to the Criminal Procedure Act that strips prosecutors of their remaining power to investigate is drawing criticism from the lawyers and prosecutors who will have to work under it, contending that the safeguards to replace that power are grossly insufficient.
The National Assembly passed the revision on Friday, taking a significant step toward removing a prosecutor's ability to look into a case that they believe warrants further investigation. Instead, they can only ask the police or the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, which takes over major crime cases on Oct. 2, to do the work. Investigating becomes the job of the police and the other investigative agencies, and prosecutors decide whether to press charges based on the evidence provided.
The DP has argued for years that prosecutors, holding both the power to investigate and charge, used the combination to intervene in politics and to lean on suspects through supplementary investigations and repeated searches and summonses. Splitting the powers was a campaign pledge of President Lee Jae Myung, and the party's acting leader has called this revision the last piece of the puzzle.
Lawyers, however, argued for months that a prosecutor cannot realistically judge whether to charge someone simply by reading a case file. In place of the supplementary investigation power it took away, the DP handed prosecutors a new one: the "right to verify facts" that allows a prosecutor to talk to victims, suspects and others connected to a case to establish what happened.
When it was pointed out that "fact verification" is simply investigation by another name, the DP drew a distinction by stripping those meetings of any evidentiary weight. Nothing said to a prosecutor can be used in court. If the prosecutor decides a statement is crucial to a case, the only route is to request a supplementary investigation and have the police put the same question to the same person as formal questioning. Only the police version can be admitted as evidence.
"The DP knows perfectly well that prosecutors need investigative power," said Yang Hong-seok, a lawyer and a former adviser to the prosecution reform task force under the Prime Minister's Office. "But it was so fixated on abolishing that power that it has built a deformed investigative structure."
Warrants and evidence preservation
Once the revision takes effect, little is left of a prosecutor's work beyond attaching relevant court precedents to the case file. Even the power to request arrest, detention and search-and-seizure warrants — which the Constitution assigns to prosecutors — can no longer be exercised because the revision mandates that police seek the warrants first. Requests to preserve digital evidence such as messages, emails and access logs, which can be wiped at any moment, now also depend on the police moving first.
Lawmakers pass a bill revising the Criminal Procedure Act during a plenary session in the afternoon at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, of July 31.NEWS1
"An evidence preservation request exists to support the integrity of a case, which the DP itself accepts is part of a prosecutor's job," a prosecutor at a Seoul district prosecutors' office said. "Making even that reliant on the police is an excessive reduction of authority. Barring prosecutors from requesting warrants directly also raises constitutional questions, and above all, there is a serious risk that suspects flee or destroy evidence while investigations and warrant requests are delayed."
When the police decide not to refer a case, a prosecutor can push them to look at it again but cannot take it over and conduct an investigation. The decision to reopen stays with the police.
"If the police decide not to refer a case against another police officer and close it themselves, prosecutors are now in a position where they cannot realistically overrule that," said a lawyer who formerly served as a prosecutor in a special investigations division.
What the DP offers instead
The revision also widens who can challenge a police decision to drop a case. Until now, only a complainant who was the direct victim could object to a nonreferral.
The revision allows such requests to be made by individuals who report a crime they were not the victim of but have enough of a stake in the outcome that they are directly affected. It also caps the window for filing an objection at three months.
The DP did build an enforcement mechanism into the revision. When the police refuse a request for supplementary investigation or reinvestigation without justification, a prosecutor can demand that the investigator be taken off the case or disciplined, or can designate a different investigative office to handle it.
Critics say the new procedure will impede progress in a case and does not compel police to do the work.
Democratic Party Rep. Seo Young-kyo, second right, chair of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and committee members comment on the passage of the revised Criminal Procedure Act at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on July 31.NEWS1
What remains with prosecutors is the power to request warrants — albeit after the police — and bring charges.
"These are tools for keeping excessive police investigation in check," the Supreme Prosecutors' Office said in explanatory material issued last Wednesday. "They play no role in steering an investigation that is lenient on a suspect."
Other attempts to establish accountability in police investigations are the introduction of recordings of interrogations and the identification of the investigators in a case.
"The name of the investigator handling a case is already disclosed, so this will not make much difference," a lawyer said. "Recording questioning is a burden on suspects as well, so it will largely be skipped."
President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting held at the Blue House in central Seoul on July 21.NEWS1
As a further check on the police, the DP is pushing a plan to require all cases concerning seven types of crimes, including child abuse and sex offenses, to be sent to prosecutors even when the police have cleared the suspect. With the supplementary investigation power gone, that is expected to do only so much to correct shoddy police work.
An association of retired prosecutors, joined by former justice ministers and prosecutors general, issued a statement Sunday.
"Who is going to take responsibility for the countless side effects and confusion to come, and for the despair and resentment of victims?" they said. "The president must veto the bill."
President Lee Jae Myung returned Monday from an 11-day visit to San Francisco and South American nations, including a state visit in Brazil, and is expected to convene a Cabinet meeting as early as Tuesday to deliberate on the bill.
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.
