Kim Dae-woong, chief judge of the Seoul High Court, said on the 16th that some of the newly revised grounds for dismissing an indictment under the Criminal Procedure Act are abstract.
Kim made the remark during a parliamentary audit of the Seoul High Court and other courts by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, after Kwak Kyu-taek of the People Power Party said the revision process had introduced vague standards such as "grave illegality in an investigation" and "a marked deviation from prosecutorial discretion." Kim replied that "it is true that these are somewhat more abstract than other existing provisions."
"I believe the grounds you mentioned basically reflect case law accumulated over the years," Kim said. "I expect that concrete standards will be established through individual cases going forward."
The audit also featured continued wrangling over the suspension of President Lee Jae-myung's criminal trials. The panel handling the remanded case over alleged violations of the Public Official Election Act, along with other related panels, has postponed hearings indefinitely since Lee took office. Such a postponement defers proceedings without setting a date for the next hearing. Article 84 of the Constitution states that a president shall not be subject to criminal prosecution while in office, except for insurrection or treason.
Kim Tae-gyu of the People Power Party said the panels handling Lee's cases were postponing hearings without legal authority and asked whether that could amount to dereliction of duty or abuse of the power to direct proceedings. Kim Dae-woong, the chief judge, said, "As far as I know, the trials have been suspended on the basis of Article 84 of the Constitution."
Kim Han-kyu of the Democratic Party of Korea noted that five presiding judges at the Seoul High Court, the Seoul Central District Court and the Suwon District Court had recently been accused of abuse of authority and dereliction of duty over the suspension of Lee's trials, and asked whether a crime could be established. "In my view, I do not think that constitutes a crime," Kim Dae-woong, the chief judge, said.
Yoon Sang-hyun of the People Power Party urged Kim to consult the panels in question to resume the trials. Kim Dae-woong responded that he "cannot be involved in trials at all, and the panels naturally report nothing to the chief judge."
Separately, Kim Rae-ni, chief judge of the Suwon Family Court, said she would "come up with measures" in response to criticism that emergency protective measures for a victim had been delayed in a case involving a man in his 20s who killed his mother-in-law and then abducted his wife and fled.