On April 26–27, lawyer Kim Yewon of the Center for the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities publicly criticized the 검수완박 (complete removal of prosecutors’ investigative powers) bill passed by a National Assembly subcommittee. She flagged a clause limiting prosecutors to investigating only facts “within the same scope” as those transferred from police, calling it a “fatal poison clause,” and urged lawmakers to remove that restriction at least for prosecutors’ supplementary investigations.
Using 20 concrete examples, Kim illustrated how the identicality restriction would block investigations that develop beyond the original charge: a child-abuse probe that uncovers sexual crimes; a stalker’s phone revealing child sexual exploitation material; small fraud cases that reveal hundreds of victims or a far larger Ponzi scheme; identifying ringleaders while investigating low-level money collectors; confessions or evidence of additional thefts, murders or bribery uncovered during unrelated probes; and cases where criminal leads point to espionage, cross-border technology leakage, or organized drug manufacture and distribution. She warned these limits would prevent prosecutors from following logical investigative leads even when public safety or national security is at stake.
Kim’s examples underline a broader concern that the proposed law could create investigative gaps, impede accountability, and complicate responses to evolving criminal networks. Her plea frames the restriction not as a technicality but as a substantive risk to effective law enforcement, pressing lawmakers to amend the bill to preserve prosecutors’ ability to pursue related or newly revealed offenses during supplementary investigations.
Original source: 검수완박 되면 못하는 20가지…”아동학대 수사 중 성폭력 확인돼도 수사 불가” (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)
