As the National Assembly debates revisions to the Criminal Procedure Act ahead of the planned dissolution of the Prosecution Service in October and the creation of a new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and a Public Prosecution Office, victims of violent crimes held a press conference Wednesday. They said victims' voices have been left out of the prosecution reform process and that abolishing prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers would not serve victims' interests.
The group "Victims and Lawyers Against Prosecution Reform Without Victims" held the press conference Wednesday afternoon at the Seoul Bar Association building in Seocho-gu, Seoul, under the title "Another Prosecution Reform Without Victims — How Do We Fix It?" The group is composed of victims of major criminal cases and lawyers.
Among those present were Kim Jin-ju (pen name), the victim in the so-called Busan spinning-kick case, and bereaved family members from the Seohyeon Station stabbing rampage. Testimony from Jeong Yeon-su (pseudonym), a victim in the Sejong gang sexual assault case, and others was read aloud by a moderator.
The Busan spinning-kick case involved a man who followed a woman home in the early hours of May 2022, struck the back of her head with a spinning kick, continued to assault her after she fell, then dragged her to a blind spot outside CCTV coverage and attempted to sexually assault her before fleeing.
Police had initially referred the suspect to prosecutors on charges of serious bodily injury, but prosecutors upgraded the charge to attempted murder and indicted him. He received a 12-year prison sentence at trial, after which prosecutors, during the appeals process, uncovered evidence of an attempted sexual assault and amended the indictment to add a charge of attempted rape-murder under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes.
The Seohyeon Station case involved Choi Won-jong, who in August 2023 drove a vehicle onto a sidewalk near Seohyeon Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, striking five people, then entered a department store and attacked nine others with a knife. Two of those struck by the vehicle died and the remaining 12 were injured. Choi received a life sentence, confirmed in November 2024.
The victims said they do not oppose the government and ruling party's prosecution reform as such, but called for preserving prosecutors' supplementary investigation powers to allow a fuller pursuit of the truth. The victim in the Busan spinning-kick case said, "Police sent the case as serious bodily injury, and when I later looked it up, it had been changed to attempted murder. I oppose prosecution reform that leaves out victims. If there are no prosecutors, what happens to the victims?"
She added, "The prosecutor I met was an ordinary person working through a pile of cases. Prosecutors asked me many times and gave me opportunities. They bowed their heads even for things that weren't their fault. Without prosecutors, victims will merely be witnesses. It's not that I like prosecutors and dislike police."
Bereaved family members from the Seohyeon Station case said both police and prosecutors had failed to keep them adequately informed of how the case was progressing. "Victims cannot hear about the details of the investigation — we are only entitled to observe court proceedings. Prosecutors did not even explain the contents of the indictment or how they had charged the case," one family member said. "When police failed to secure footage from the scene, the child's father obtained and submitted it himself."
Another bereaved family member from the Seohyeon Station case said, "Prosecution reform should not simply be about stripping prosecutors of their powers — it must genuinely keep victims' recovery in mind. Reform should expand victims' right to participate, including the opportunity to submit opinions before a disposition is made. There should be no situation where everything is kept secret and victims are left in the dark."
Oh Ji-won, a lead attorney at law firm Law and Healing who is active in the group, said, "The 'separation' of investigation and indictment must not mean their 'severance.' If prosecutors at the Public Prosecution Office indict based solely on records sent by police, without meeting the parties involved and hearing from them directly, they will not be able to properly carry out their function at trial."
Ahn Ji-hee, a lawyer with the Minbyun (Lawyers for a Democratic Society) Women's Human Rights Committee, said, "Even if a prosecutor reviews the case file, if the victim cannot point out which parts of the investigation were insufficient, the gaps will go undetected, a non-prosecution decision will be made, and the disposition will ultimately be finalized with the investigation itself in a flawed state."
bell@heraldcorp.com
