Democratic Party Proposes Amendment to Criminal Procedure Law Favoring Defendants

On June 20, it was reported that the Democratic Party of Korea is pushing for an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law that would allow the statute of limitations to continue running even if a court rules that a prosecution was unlawful. This proposal aims to calculate the statute of limitations in a way that benefits defendants in cases of improper prosecution.

Ten members of the Democratic Party, including Representative 박균택 (Park Kyun-taek), introduced this amendment on June 18. Currently, Article 253 of the Criminal Procedure Law states that the statute of limitations is paused when a prosecution is initiated and resumes only after a ruling of dismissal or jurisdictional violation is finalized. The proposed amendment would stipulate that if a prosecution is confirmed to be invalid from the outset, the pause on the statute of limitations would not apply.

This means that if a prosecution is deemed improper, any time elapsed during the trial would count against the statute of limitations, potentially allowing defendants to avoid punishment if the statute expires. Legal experts suggest that this amendment is particularly influenced by the case of Representative 정준호 (Jung Jun-ho), who was indicted last July for alleged violations of election law during an internal party primary ahead of the April general elections. At the time of his indictment, only about two months remained on his statute of limitations.

In February, a first-instance court ruled to dismiss the charges against Jung, citing a new law that prohibits prosecutors from filing charges on crimes they have investigated. The prosecution argued that the case was not subject to this separation because it was initiated by the Election Commission, but the court disagreed.

Following this ruling, the prosecution opted to re-indict Jung with a different prosecutor rather than appeal the dismissal. Jung has since publicly claimed that the re-indictment is unjust given that the statute of limitations has clearly expired.

Despite these claims, the court has decided to proceed with the trial, scheduling the first formal hearing for July. In response, the Democratic Party has introduced the amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law, which some legal analysts believe could lead to criticism that lawmakers are attempting to legislate in favor of their own party members.