Prosecutors up in arms over plan to scrap key investigation unit

By Park Si-soo

Prosecutors are going all out to strike down a lawmakers’ campaign to abolish the prosecution’s key investigation unit under the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

From slush fund scandals to high-profile investigations into politicians, bureaucrats and tycoons, the Central Investigation Unit has led operations unearthing the underlying corruptive deals of society that would otherwise go unnoticed due to political influence.

But the fate of the unit of the elite prosecutors is now uncertain. The showdown began on March 10 when a six-member parliamentary subcommittee passed a package of reformation bills. Abolishing the investigation unit was one of the top items on the agenda.

The subcommittee cited the unit’s vulnerability to political influence as a key reason for the abolishment.

Instead, it suggested running independent investigation teams at prosecutors’ offices, which specialized in corruption cases involving judges, prosecutors and ranking government officials.

However, prosecutors are protesting the lawmakers’ move vehemently and systematically.

“Abolishing the unit is like amputating the arms and legs of the prosecution,” Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Spokesman Han Chan-shik said, calling the unit “the centerpiece of the guard against corruption.”

Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu convened an emergency meeting of senior prosecutors one day after the reform package was announced to discuss how to respond.

Kim lashed out at lawmakers of the subcommittee, saying they were attempting to uproot the prosecution system.

“We have no more things to lose at the moment,” the top prosecutor said, hinting at the prosecutors’ no-holds-barred campaigns to reject the changes.

Kim will hold a workshop among senior prosecutors on April 2 to devise countermeasures.

By coincidence or not, the disputed bill was unveiled when six lawmakers ― from both the ruling Grand National Party and the largest opposition Democratic Party ― were indicted for illegally collecting political funds from an association of security guards working at state buildings in exchange for favorable legislation.

Dozens of their fellow assemblymen are seeking to revise the law to legalize political donations from interest groups, a move eventually aimed to exonerate the six legislators.

Considering the situation, many critics depict the latest reform bills as a counterattack from politicians angered by the investigation into the beneficiaries of the illegal political donation.

“One irony is why the reform plan was pushed ahead as the trial for the six lawmakers was underway,” a former prosecutor general said in an interview. “Without the central investigation unit, it’s all but impossible to investigate corruption cases involving high-profile figures.”

This is the third attempt to shut down the unit by lawmakers. In 2004, the then ruling camp tried to abolish it at the height of an investigation into suspicious political funds used in the previous presidential election.

The latest case occurred in 2009 in the wake of former President Roh Moo-hyun’s suicide committed days after he was questioned by the unit for allegedly accepting bribes.