▲ The Supreme Prosecutors Office (Yonhap)

investigation agencies-outline

New agency replacing prosecution to be tasked with investigating 9 major types of crime

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- A new government agency replacing the prosecution will be tasked with investigating nine major types of crime, including corruption and insurrection, with oversight from the interior minister, a task force said Monday.

The so-called serious crimes investigation agency is one of two agencies, along with the indictment agency, that will be established in October under a government reorganization bill that passed the National Assembly last September.

The two bodies will replace the prosecution office and take on its investigative and indictment powers as part of President Lee Jae Myung's administration's drive to address longstanding criticism that the prosecution has abused its exclusive powers by carrying out politically motivated investigations.

The new agencies' functions and compositions are outlined in two bills on their establishment, which were unveiled Monday by the prosecution reform task force under the Prime Minister's Office.

The interior ministry, which has oversight over the serious crimes investigation agency, and the justice ministry, with oversight over the indictment office, issued legislative notices on the bills the same day to run through Jan. 26.

Under the first bill, the serious crimes office will have powers to open investigations into nine major types of crime involving corruption, economic offenses, public officials, elections, the defense industry, large-scale disasters, narcotics, insurrection and foreign aggression, and cyber activities.

The government plans to further specify the crime types through a presidential decree at a later date to include economic crimes involving large sums of money, technology leaks, drug smuggling across borders and large-scale hacking attacks.

The agency will be run by two groups of investigators -- one group comprising prosecutors and the other general professional investigators.

The second bill, meanwhile, calls for limiting the powers of the indictment office to the institution and maintenance of the prosecution, stripping prosecutors of their ability to open an investigation.

It also stipulates a sentence of up to five years in prison and up to five years of license suspension for prosecutors found guilty of joining a political party or other political involvement.

The bill does not, however, provide guidelines on the contentious issue of whether to allow prosecutors working for the indictment agency to carry out supplementary investigations in a case.

The task force said it plans to review the issue at a later date in the process of revising the Criminal Procedure Code.

(END)

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]