Kim Tae-kyu, third from left, chair of the People Power Party's legal advisory committee, and vice chairs Ko Seok, first from left, and Choi Ji-woo, head to the public reception office of the Constitutional Court on Aug. 13 in Jongno District, central Seoul, to file a constitutional complaint over the abolition of prosecutors' supplementary investigative authority.NEWS1
The opposition People Power Party (PPP) asked the Constitutional Court on Thursday to strike down the law that ends prosecutors' power to investigate crimes. The complaint opens the opposition's legal campaign against an overhaul of the criminal justice system that will otherwise take effect on Oct. 2.
PPP Rep. Kim Tae-kyu, a former judge who chairs the party's legal advisory committee, filed the constitutional complaint at 2 p.m. at the court in Jongno District, central Seoul, along with two of the committee's vice chairs, Ko Seok and Choi Ji-woo.
PPP's party leader Jang Dong-hyeok was also named as a complainant in a personal capacity.
The party's central claim concernswarrants. Article 12 of the Constitution requires that warrants for arrest, detention, search and seizure be issued by a judge on a prosecutor's application. The party argues that role is hollowed out once prosecutors cannot investigate and must wait for the police to ask them for a warrant first. The complaint also invokes due process, the presumption of innocence, the right to a speedy trial and a crime victim's right to be heard in court.
"Abolishing supplementary investigative authority fundamentally shakes the foundation of the Criminal Procedure Act and could bring down the entire separation of powers," Kim said. "It could completely close off a path to relief for victims through prosecutors' supplementary investigations, as in the Busan roundhouse kick case."
The Busan roundhouse kick case began with a 2022 attack in which a man knocked a woman down outside her home in Busan and assaulted her. After the victim pressed for further investigation during the appeal, DNA testing found the attacker's DNA on her clothing, and prosecutors amended the indictment from attempted murder to attempted rape and murder. He was sentenced to 20 years.
The revised Criminal Procedure Act hands supplementary investigations to the police and the new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, with prosecutors only able to decide charges and argue cases in court. It strips them of the power to open their own cases or fill gaps in a police file before deciding whether to indict.
Kim Tae-kyu, chair of the People Power Party's legal advisory committee files a constitutional complaint over the abolition of prosecutors' supplementary investigative authority at the public reception office of the Constitutional Court on Aug. 13 in Jongno District, central Seoul.NEWS1
From Oct. 2, the prosecutor can only request that police carry out supplementary investigations, which the police will have one month to complete.
The Prosecution Service will also be dissolved on the same day, with a new Public Prosecution Service handling courtroom functions.
"If the supplementary investigative authority is abolished, judicial checks by prosecutors will effectively be blocked," Kim said. "That could lead to violations ofbasic rights and weaken the protection of the public from crime, which is why we filed this constitutional complaint."
Jang was named not as a party leader of the PPP but as an individual whose constitutional rights had been infringed. Legislation can be challenged directly only by a claimant whose own constitutional rights have been infringed. Jang sued TV Chosun's newsroom chief and others in June over reports alleging preferential treatment tied to a past real estate investment, and he is under investigation in several cases following complaints filed by the ruling Democratic Party (DP).
"Cases in progress like these will be directly affected in the investigative procedures currently underway once the revised Criminal Procedure Act takes effect," a PPP spokesperson explained.
The results of lawmakers' vote on a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act are displayed on a screen at the National Assembly on July 31.YONHAP
"If supplementary investigative authority is abolished, judicial checks by prosecutors will effectively be blocked," the PPP's Kim said. "That leads to violations of the public's basic human rights and to the state falling short in protecting people from crime, and those are the problems that led us to file this constitutional complaint."
The National Assembly passed the amendment on July 31 under DP leadership, after a PPP filibuster collapsed and the party walked out. President Lee Jae Myung declined to veto it, saying he could not reject a bill simply because people disagreed about it.
The Cabinet promulgated it on Aug. 4.
BY CHO MUN-GYU [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]
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.
