Chang Dong-hyeok, leader of the main opposition People Power Party, said Friday that the Democratic Party must abandon its push to abolish prosecutors' investigative powers, warning that the move would leave ordinary citizens vulnerable.
"They must stop the attempt to strip supplementary investigative powers. No, they must stop the very attempt to dismantle the prosecution itself," Chang said.
Writing on Facebook, Chang cited the recent murder of a female high school student in Gwangju. "An innocent high school girl was brutally raped and murdered, yet the police referred the case to prosecutors as a 'simple homicide' carrying a prison term of five years or less. That was because the murderer's father was a police officer," he said.
"The father, a police officer, personally destroyed evidence, and the investigation team leader assisted through a scaled-down probe," he continued. "Without the prosecution's supplementary investigation, it would have ended just like that."
"Yet the Democratic Party is engaged in a competition to strip prosecutors of their supplementary investigative powers," Chang said. "As long as they can win votes from the 'gaettal,' the harm to the public is of no concern to them."
Chang also stressed, "It is clear who benefits and who is harmed by dismantling the prosecution and stripping supplementary investigative powers. Those with power and money will reap the benefits, while only the powerless and penniless people will suffer."
Meanwhile, the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee is set to hold a plenary meeting Saturday to table an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act that would abolish prosecutors' supplementary investigative powers. Amid stalled negotiations over the second-half committee composition, the People Power Party, which has boycotted standing committees, is expected to be absent from the plenary meeting.
