Laws declawing prosecutors challenged constitutionally
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The Justice Ministry and the state prosecution service filed a joint petition with the Constitutional Court on Monday asking that it void two recent laws weakening the prosecution's investigative powers.
The move was the last attempt by President Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration to prevent the prosecution from being stripped of its remaining investigative powers. Yoon opposed efforts by the previous administration's to weaken the prosecution when he served as prosecutor general.
In their petition, the Justice Ministry and the prosecution argue that both the substance of the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act and Prosecutors’ Office Act as well as the process by which both were passed by the Democratic Party (DP)-controlled National Assembly violate the constitution.
The DP pushed both bills through the judiciary committee without the support of the People Power Party (PPP) in April and passed them at separate plenary sessions of the National Assembly on April 30 and May 3, just in time for President Moon Jae-in to sign them into law at his last Cabinet meeting.
The laws stipulate that the prosecution will lose its remaining investigative powers in September.
Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon, a former prosecutor and one of the petitioners, said Monday that the attempt to convince the Constitutional Court to void both laws is “an inevitable measure to correct the serious damage arising from unconstitutional legislation passed by unconstitutional means.”
The Justice Ministry has also applied for an injunction to suspend the laws from going into effect until the Constitutional Court reaches a decision.
In its petition, the ministry alleged the DP committed several violations of parliamentary procedure in its rush to defang the prosecution before Moon’s term ended.
The ministry pointed out the DP did not hold public consultations or hearings on the controversial bills and gave only three days’ notice before their introduction to the floor of the National Assembly, as opposed to the 10 days stipulated in parliamentary rules.
Most egregiously, the ministry said, the DP orchestrated a lawmaker’s defection in April to tip the scales of a parliamentary committee reviewing the bills.
In order to alter the balance of power in a six-member committee required to include one lawmaker not from the two major parties, DP lawmaker Min Hyung-bae left his party to nominally appear as an independent.
As a result, the committee was composed of three DP members, two PPP members, and one independent on paper, but was effectively stacked 4-2 in the DP’s favor.
Min voted in accordance with his former party to speed the bills’ passage through the committee stage over the objections of two PPP committee members.
“The defects [of the laws] are serious and obvious in their violation of the principles of procedural democracy and the rule of law,” the Justice Ministry said.
Since the 2012 revision of the National Assembly Act — also known as the National Assembly Advancement Act — proposed legislation must enjoy broader support at the committee stage than previously required in order to proceed to a full floor vote. The purpose of the reform was to encourage consensus-building among lawmakers and give greater representation to minor parties and independents.
The Justice Ministry also argued in its petition that serious public harm will arise if the prosecution is stripped of its investigative powers.
The amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act and Prosecutors’ Office Act will reduce the scope of the prosecution’s direct investigative authority from six major categories of crime to just two: corruption and economic crimes.
The Justice Ministry voiced fears that such changes would deprive victims of their constitutional right to prompt and fair trials.
“Areas where prosecutors are barred from directly conducting an investigation must await a police investigation, but if an investigation by police is not done properly, recourse will be limited and the people’s right to a prompt trial will be violated,” the ministry said.
BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
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