On the 5th, the government pushes to process the ‘Special Prosecution Bill on Fabricated Indictments’…曺Kukjo collects additional opinions (comprehensive)

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Jeong-jin and Choi Joo-seong = On the 3rd, the Democratic Party of Korea adopted the so-called 'Special Prosecution Act on Manipulated Prosecutions (Plan)' as its party platform and decided to process it at the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 5th at the earliest.

The Democratic Party also decided to collect additional opinions on the issue of the state investigation into Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, which was scheduled to be reported to the plenary session on the same day.

Floor spokesperson Kim Seong-hoe made this statement when meeting with reporters after the general meeting of lawmakers held at the National Assembly on this day.

He said, “The special prosecution law on fabricated indictments was adopted as a party line,” and “we plan to discuss bringing it up to the plenary session on the 5th.”

It was also reported that there were no significant objections to the special prosecution bill at the National Assembly.

Regarding the government investigation into Chief Justice Cho, floor spokesperson Kim said, “Several lawmakers gave various opinions at the general meeting,” and “We decided to have a procedure to collect more opinions within the house.”

At the same time, when asked whether the request for a government investigation would be reported to the plenary session on the 5th, he explained, "I understood that it would not be raised on the 5th because time was needed to collect opinions."

Previously, the Democratic Party decided to push for a state investigation into Chief Justice Cho at the general meeting of lawmakers at the end of last month and decided to report the matter to the plenary session on the 5th.

The plan was to process the government investigation plan later this month, but the overall schedule is expected to be adjusted as additional opinions were decided to be collected on this day.

The Democratic Party is expected to take the lead in processing the special prosecution bill on fabricated prosecutions at the Legislative and Judiciary Committee, following the decision of the general meeting on this day.

The Judiciary Committee plans to present the bill at the general meeting on the 4th.

The Democratic Party submitted the bill in April, right after the government investigation into fabricated indictments led by its own party, saying it would investigate suspicions of manipulation of investigations and prosecutions by the prosecution, National Intelligence Service, and Board of Audit and Inspection during the Yoon Seok-yeol administration.

The targets of investigation specified in the special prosecution bill are 12 cases, including ▲ suspicions of corruption in the development of Daejang-dong, ▲ suspicions of corruption in the development of Wirye New Town, ▲ suspicion of receiving bribes by former Vice President of the Democratic Research Institute Kim Yong, ▲ Ssangbangwool remittances to North Korea, and ▲ manipulation of statistics.

The bill also grants the special prosecutor the de facto 'right to cancel prosecution', which allows him to decide whether to maintain prosecution.

However, when the People Power Party went on the offensive, calling it a 'self-pardon', President Lee Jae-myung asked the ruling party to pass the bill without the relevant clause at a press conference last September.

Rep. Seo Young-kyo, chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, met with reporters that day and said, “We will revise and adjust the bill, excluding all things like cancellation of indictments.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party plans to also handle contentious bills such as the Democratic Meritorious Persons Act, the Urban Maintenance Act, the Urban Maintenance Promotion Act, and the Yongsan Park Special Act at the plenary session on the 5th.

In addition, the plan is to adopt a resolution calling for the expulsion of Rep. Kim Tae-gyu of the People Power Party and a resolution condemning North Korean landmine provocations in the area south of the Military Demarcation Line, which was passed by the National Defense Committee led by the ruling party.