The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said it is necessary to expand the scope of its investigations to align with the establishment of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (SCI) on Oct. 2.
A CIO official said at a regular briefing on the 11th, "The CIO was created to investigate and indict crimes committed by prosecutors in the course of their duties," adding, "In line with this, it should be able to investigate SCI officials at grade 4 and above."
According to the plan prepared by the SCI launch task force, when incumbent prosecutors transfer their affiliation to the SCI, chief prosecutors at the district office head level are assigned grade 1, deputy and division chief-level prosecutors are grade 2, prosecutors with more than 10 years of legal experience are grade 3, and those with less than 10 years are grade 4.
The CIO Act lists as high-ranking officials subject to CIO investigation "judges and prosecutors" and "police officers at senior superintendent general or above," among others. The official said the police investigation target "should be expanded to senior superintendent and above."
The CIO official also said, "If a prosecutor at the Prosecution Service declines to indict a case for which the CIO has requested prosecution, there is no procedure to challenge it," and noted that the CIO chief should be granted the right to file an application for adjudication. An application for adjudication is a procedure to ask a court to determine whether a prosecutor's non-indictment disposition is unlawful or unjust.
In addition, the CIO expressed the view that when the Prosecution Service indicts a case for which the CIO has requested prosecution, there needs to be a legal basis allowing CIO prosecutors to support maintaining the indictment at trial.