A law distortion offense that punishes judges or prosecutors with imprisonment if they distort and apply the law passed the National Assembly's plenary session. The Democratic Party of Korea drew up and submitted a revised bill the previous day to minimize potential unconstitutionality, but the legal community still says there are problems.
On the 26th, the National Assembly held a plenary session and passed an amendment to the Criminal Act known as the law distortion offense. It was approved with 163 in favor out of 170 present. Three opposed and four abstained. The People Power Party did not take part in the vote.
The law distortion offense is a penal provision that allows up to 10 years in prison or up to 10 years of disqualification when a judge or prosecutor "applies a statute while knowing that the requirements for its application are not met" or "recognizes criminal facts while knowing that no lawful evidence exists." Hard-liner lawmakers in the Democratic Party have pushed the legislation since last year as part of judicial reform.
The Democratic Party adopted a party-line revised bill at a general meeting of lawmakers on the afternoon of the previous day, just before bringing the bill to the plenary session, narrowing the scope of the law distortion offense to criminal cases and deleting some wording such as "when acknowledging facts in a manner clearly contrary to logic or rules of experience." As criticism mounted that the original bill passed by The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee had abstract punitive provisions and potential unconstitutionality, the party leadership stepped in and put forward the revision. Although hard-liners, including Kim Yong-min, the ruling party secretary on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, opposed it, the party leadership pushed it through.
Although the Democratic Party stepped back by submitting a revised bill, concerns persist. The previous day, chief judges nationwide held a meeting and said they "express serious regret over the current situation in which bills that could bring fundamental changes to the judicial system and have a profound impact on people's lives have been placed on the agenda of the National Assembly's plenary session without sufficient public debate and deliberation on the side effects of institutional reforms, despite expressions of concern from the judiciary and various sectors of society."
Following the law distortion offense, the Democratic Party plans to handle the remaining judicial reform bills, including the petition for retrial system and the increase in the number of Supreme Court justices. On this day, a bill to amend the Constitutional Court Act, centered on introducing the petition for retrial system, was placed on the agenda of the National Assembly's plenary session.
The People Power Party launched a filibuster (a lawful obstruction of proceedings through unlimited debate) to oppose the petition for retrial system.