The ruling party has drawn up a revised bill to create a court dedicated to insurrection cases. The idea is that it removed unconstitutional elements, such as deleting the clause that allowed the Justice Minister to be involved in recommending judges.
Park Su-hyun, senior spokesperson of the Democratic Party of Korea, told reporters after a general meeting of lawmakers at the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 16th that "there were no particular objections in the general meeting to the revised plan proposed by the policy committee."
At the general meeting, Policy Committee Chair Han Jeong-ae explained advice from an outside law firm on the existing bill to establish a court dedicated to insurrection cases and opinions received during the public discussion process. This was followed by an explanation of the revised bill.
Floor spokesperson Kim Hyun-jung said, "Jung Chung-rae, the party leader, said in effect that 'we should evaluate and acknowledge that The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee drafted the initial version. But let's cut out anything that could be unconstitutional.'"
The Democratic Party's revised plan centers on assigning cases to the court dedicated to insurrection starting from the appellate level. The bill's name was changed from "Special Act on the Establishment of a Dedicated Court and Protection of Whistleblowers for the Dec. 3 Yoon Suk-yeol Martial Law, etc." to "Special Act on the Establishment of a Dedicated Court for Insurrection and Treason."
Senior spokesperson Park said, "To remove the aspect of a dispositive law, we decided to take out the specific case name and generalize it." This appears to reflect concerns that a law targeting specific individuals or cases could infringe on fundamental rights.
The party also decided to remove outside involvement from among those with the right to recommend members of the committee to recommend candidates for the dedicated court, including the Justice Minister and the Constitutional Court Secretary-General. It added provisions so that the court would be formed internally, such as having the chief justice appoint members upon a recommendation by a Supreme Court justice. Floor spokesperson Kim Hyun-jung explained, "How the internal members will be selected has not been finalized; only the direction has been set. The judges' meeting and the council of judges are examples, and 'it will be composed of internal members of the judiciary' is the accurate description."
It also provides for establishing more than one dedicated court, with one of them dedicated to warrants, and for the warrants-only court not to hear trials on the merits. It sets the detention period for defendants charged with insurrection or treason at one year, double the six-month detention period under the Criminal Procedure Act, and did not reach a conclusion on provisions restricting pardons and the restoration of rights.
Senior spokesperson Park said, "Centered on the floor leader, the policy committee will use this plan as the basis to refine the details, finalize a draft, and then go through the process of reintroducing it as the party's official bill."
The bill to establish a court dedicated to insurrection cases is likely to be put to a plenary session set for the 21st or 22nd. Along with this bill, the Democratic Party plans to bring the bill to eradicate false or manipulated information (an amendment to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection) to the floor as well.