'Special Prosecutor Act on Fabricated Indictments' Passes Legislation and Judiciary Committee; Ruling Party: 'Plenary Vote on Nov. 5'

Agenda Coordination Committee Briefly Convened, but Bill Was Referred Back

The so-called “Special Prosecutor Act on Fabricated Indictments,” which would investigate allegations that the prosecution under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration fabricated indictments, passed the full meeting of the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee on the 4th, with the Democratic Party of Korea taking the lead.

At its full meeting that day, the committee passed the “Bill on the Appointment of a Special Prosecutor to Investigate the Truth Behind Allegations of Fabricated Investigations and Indictments by State Agencies, Including the Prosecutors’ Office, the National Intelligence Service and the Board of Audit and Inspection under the Yoon Suk Yeol Administration.” People Power Party lawmakers walked out en masse just before the bill was put to a vote.

Yonhap News Agency

Earlier, the bill had also been approved under the Democratic Party’s leadership by the committee’s First Subcommittee on Bill Review, while People Power Party lawmakers walked out.

Before the bill passed the full committee, a special committee for agenda coordination was formed to discuss it at the request of the People Power Party. The committee can review a bill for up to 90 days, but if at least four of its six members vote in favor, the bill can be referred to the standing committee and put to an immediate vote.

The special committee for agenda coordination comprised three Democratic Party lawmakers, two People Power Party lawmakers and one Progressive Party lawmaker. With the Democratic Party and Progressive Party lawmakers voting in favor, the bill was referred back to the full meeting of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and passed.

The Democratic Party plans to pass the bill at a plenary session of the National Assembly on the following day, November 5.

The Special Prosecutor Act on Fabricated Indictments calls for an investigation into allegations that, after the Yoon Suk Yeol administration took office, the prosecution and other agencies conducted targeted investigations of the opposition, then in power, and political rivals, and carried out fabricated investigations and indictments.

The Legislation and Judiciary Committee removed a provision from the bill originally introduced by the Democratic Party that could be interpreted as granting the special prosecutor the “authority to withdraw indictments.” The original bill included a provision allowing the special prosecutor to take over cases from prosecutors and decide whether to maintain the indictments, but the provision was removed during the subcommittee’s review. The committee also deleted existing wording in the sections on the special prosecutor’s duties and powers that allowed the special prosecutor to decide whether to maintain indictments.

The special prosecutor’s targets include the prosecution’s investigations and indictments in cases involving allegations of breach of trust related to the Daejang-dong, Wirye New Town and Baekhyeon-dong development projects; violations of the Public Official Election Act related to the Daejang-dong and Baekhyeon-dong projects; subornation of perjury involving Kim Jin-seong; the Ssangbangwool remittances to North Korea; bribery related to sponsorship of Seongnam FC; former Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung’s use of a corporate credit card; and false reports allegedly intended to defame former President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The targets also include allegations of statistical manipulation under the Moon Jae-in administration; the death of a South Korean official in the West Sea and the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors; bribery related to the employment of former President Moon’s son-in-law; the leak of classified information about the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system; and alleged manipulation of an economic feasibility assessment for Unit 1 of the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant.

Among these cases, the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors, cases involving former President Moon, the THAAD case and the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant case were added during the committee’s revision of the bill.

The investigation team will include 20 prosecutors on secondment and up to 210 seconded public officials, excluding seconded prosecutors. The team will have up to 309 members, including special investigators. The investigation can last up to 200 days, including the preparation period.

The Democratic Party and the People Power Party, both negotiating groups, and the Rebuilding Korea Party, the largest party among those not recognized as negotiating groups, will each recommend one candidate for special prosecutor. President Lee Jae-myung will appoint one of the candidates.

People Power Party lawmakers opposed the bill’s passage at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee’s full meeting that day. People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun said, “The Legislation and Judiciary Committee has become a law office for one person, President Lee,” adding, “For someone with the legal status of a defendant to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate their own case is a violation of the prohibition on conflicts of interest and a privatization of power.”

Fellow party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo criticized the bill, saying, “When we pointed out that the cases targeted for investigation involved Lee Jae-myung, they put everything from the Moon [administration] into the amended bill.”

In response, Kim Eui-kyeom of the Democratic Party, the ruling party’s secretary on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, told reporters at the National Assembly, “We revised the bill, significantly expanded the scope of the investigation and removed the provision related to withdrawing indictments,” adding, “We also removed many of the points of conflict of interest related to the president’s appointment of the special prosecutor.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.