Constitutional Court upheld 16.9% of petitions challenging prosecutorial suspension of indictment over past 6 years, lawmaker says

The Constitutional Court upheld about 16.9 percent of petitions seeking to overturn prosecutors' decisions to suspend indictments over the past six years, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Seo Young-gyo said Saturday.

According to data submitted by the Constitutional Court to Seo's office, the court granted 249 of 1,476 petitions filed between 2020 and 2025 challenging prosecutorial suspension-of-indictment decisions.

A suspension of indictment — known in Korean law as "gisoyuyeo" — occurs when a prosecutor determines that charges are substantiated but declines to bring the case to trial after weighing various circumstances. While the suspect avoids criminal punishment, the decision carries an implicit finding of guilt by investigators, and the subject may challenge its validity through a constitutional petition.

The highest annual acceptance rate over the six-year period came in 2020, when the court granted 61 of 256 petitions, a rate of 23.8 percent. Even in 2025, when the rate was at its lowest, the court still granted 35 of 326 petitions, or 10.7 percent — meaning the rate exceeded 10 percent every year. Annual figures were 16.0 percent in 2021, 12.3 percent in 2022, 21.6 percent in 2023 and 18.1 percent in 2024.

"Over the past six years, the acceptance rate for constitutional petitions challenging prosecutorial suspension-of-indictment decisions was 10.7 percent even in the lowest year, and reached as high as 23.8 percent," Seo said. "There must be no more cases where a suspension of indictment is used as a snare against someone who should have been cleared outright, forcing that person to file a constitutional petition."