Special prosecution for fabrication indictment, 309 people, active for up to 200 days... Manpower and evidence collection are difficult

The so-called special prosecution bill on fabricated indictments has passed the National Assembly, but there are a lot of difficult problems that need to be solved, such as manpower shortages in the assessment agencies that will be requested to dispatch personnel, and evidence collection in cases already on trial.

This is the 7th special prosecution investigation into the fabrication indictment under the Lee Jae-myung administration, and among them, special prosecutor Lee Tae-han's team, which is investigating the ballot paper shortage in the June 3 local elections, is still in the midst of its investigation.

With the launch of the Central Investigation Agency and the repeated dispatch of special prosecutors, the number of prosecutors has decreased and the number of unsolved cases has exploded. With the launch of another large-scale special prosecutor, there are concerns that the shortage of investigative personnel and the backlog of cases will further intensify.

According to the 'Act on the Appointment of Special Prosecutors to Find out the Truth About Fraudulent Investigations and Prosecution of State Agencies, Such as the Prosecutor's Office, National Intelligence Service, and Board of Audit and Inspection under the Yoon Seok-yeol regime', which passed the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 6th, the total number of members of the special prosecution team is 309.

Specifically, there is one special prosecutor, eight assistant special prosecutors, 20 dispatched prosecutors, 210 dispatched public officials (excluding prosecutors), and 70 special investigators.

The special prosecutor team goes through a 20-day investigation preparation period from the date the special prosecutor is appointed, and operates for a maximum of 200 days, including a basic 90-day period and an extended period of 90 days.

Considering that the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (Serious Crimes Investigation Office) across the country has a staff of about 2,600 and the current number of members is 1,900, the number of 309 members of the special prosecutor's team investigating a single case can be said to be 'mammoth level'.

The number of special prosecutors for manipulation indictments is slightly less than that of the previously launched Insurrection Special Prosecutor (317 people, including special prosecutors), and more than Special Prosecutor Kim Kun-hee (297 people), Special Prosecutors for Marines who died in the line of duty (145 people), Comprehensive Special Prosecutors (251 people), and National Election Commission special prosecutors currently investigating (166 people).

However, considering the special prosecutor's team's wide-ranging investigation target, this number cannot be considered large.

Among the targets of investigation set by the passed bill, those related to President Lee Jae-myung are ▲ Corruption related to the development of Daejang-dong, Wirye New Town, and Baekhyeon-dong ▲ Publication of false facts related to the development of Daejang-dong and Baekhyeon-dong ▲ Illegal sponsorship of Seongnam FC ▲ Instructing perjury against Mr. Kim Jin-seong ▲ Ssangbangwool remittance to North Korea and former Chairman Kim Seong-tae's overseas expedition gambling ▲ Misuse of the Gyeonggi Province Governor's corporate card.

In addition, ▲ the shooting of a government official in the West Sea and the repatriation of sailors to the East Sea to North Korea ▲ Moon Jae-in government's manipulation of statistics ▲ bribery related to the employment of former President Moon Jae-in's son-in-law ▲ defamation investigation by false reports of presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol ▲ economic feasibility manipulation of Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 ▲ economic feasibility manipulation of Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1.

Because of the wide scope of the investigation, the Democratic Party of Korea originally tried to set the number of people at 357 in the original proposal, but in the revised bill, the number of people was drastically reduced while partially expanding the scope of the investigation.

As the investigation is not easy even with all the personnel, the special prosecutor is expected to have a hiring problem.

The Public Prosecution Office, which is suffering from a backlog of unsolved cases due to a massive outflow of manpower due to the recent launch of the Central Investigations Office, and the Central Investigations Office, which was launched with only two-thirds of its capacity, are both suffering from a shortage of investigative manpower and do not have enough capacity to dispatch special prosecutors.

Because of these circumstances, the Central Investigation Agency recently responded that only one person could be dispatched to the Central Investigation Agency's request to dispatch up to 10 investigative personnel.

In addition, as this special prosecution has the burden of investigating the 'improperty' of the prosecution's handling of cases in the past and there is a high risk of being caught up in a dispute over fairness, there is a possibility that prosecutors will not actively participate in the dispatch.

This is because the prosecutors and investigators who investigated the case will be included in the special prosecutor's investigation.

On the 4th of this month, Acting Minister of Justice Lee Jin-soo (Vice Minister of Justice) presented an opinion at the Agenda Coordination Committee of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly, saying, "Given the purpose of this special prosecution, I am concerned about the controversy over fairness," and "Please reduce the size of the prosecutors dispatched."

The number of prosecutors for this special prosecution is 20, which is lower than the number of the three special prosecutors, which ranged from 30 to 70, but they requested that it be reduced further due to concerns about controversy.

Another difficulty facing the special prosecution team is securing evidence.

As cases already in criminal trial are being re-investigated, case records must be handed over to the court, and there is a high risk of being caught up in legality disputes during this process.

A sitting judge explained, “Because these cases are already on trial in court, all the data will be in the court,” and “It will not be easy for the special prosecutor to secure the data because third parties do not have the authority to view or copy trial records.”