SEOUL-- The Ministry of Justice said Thursday it will push to expand the scope of prosecutors' investigative powers through the revision of the presidential decree.
The ministry's decision came just one month before the prosecution reform bills, officially called revisions of the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Criminal Procedure Act, come into force. The revisions call for reducing the prosecution's investigative powers to only two crime types -- corruption and economic crimes -- from the current six.
The liberal Democratic Party (DP)-dominated National Assembly passed the two reform bills a week before the President Yoon Suk-yeol government took office on May 10, amid strong protests from the conservative People Power Party (PPP).
PPP lawmakers and critics alleged that the reform bills are intended to prevent prosecutors' investigations into suspected crimes involving top officials of the preceding Moon Jae-in government.
The PPP and the justice ministry have separately lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court over the possible unconstitutionality of the DP's railroading of the prosecution reform bills.
As the ruling from the Constitutional Court has been delayed, the justice ministry said it will push to amend the presidential decrees to allow the prosecution to retain its investigative authority over parts of the crimes related to public officials and elections.
Some of the crimes by public officials, such as abuse of power and creation of false public documents, can be seen as typical of corruption crimes, while some election crimes, such as bribery and donations, can be also defined as corruption crimes, ministry officials said.
The revised presidential decree also allows prosecutors to investigate drug trafficking, criminal organizations and voice phishing by defining them among economic crimes, they explained.
Moreover, the justice ministry will push to significantly expand the scope of corruption and economic crimes to be directly investigated by prosecutors.
The ministry will also classify violations of judicial order and other offenses stipulated in individual laws as "grave crimes" to be directly investigated by prosecutors.
The ministry said it will make a prior announcement of the revised presidential decree by Aug. 29.
"The current and revised Prosecutors' Office Act entrusts the presidential decree with the scope of grave crimes to be investigated by prosecutors, allowing the government to define the specific scope of such crimes," said a ministry official, expecting that the revised presidential decree can prevent the weakening of the state's crime response capabilities and minimize damage to the people.
Source: Yonhap News Agency