Ministry of Justice Steps Back One Day After Human Rights Controversy Over 'Bibeon Disclosure Act'

Announcement of Measures Beyond Criminal Punishment and Limiting to Violent Crimes
Minbyun and People's Solidarity Criticize Strongly Through Consecutive Statements and Comments

Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The Ministry of Justice moved to contain the backlash within a day after strong criticism from both inside and outside the legal community regarding the so-called "password disclosure law," which Minister Choo Mi-ae had instructed to be considered for enactment.

On the 13th, the Ministry of Justice announced through a ministry notice, "Regarding the research on legislation imposing cooperation obligations during digital evidence searches, we inform you that we are reviewing reasonable and harmonious measures that respect the principle against self-incrimination, freedom of conscience, and privacy protection. These include strictly regulating procedures by imposing disclosure obligations only when ordered by the court, considering various sanctions such as enforcement fines and administrative fines in addition to criminal penalties, and limiting the scope to certain crimes such as child pornography crimes and cyberterrorism on the internet."

The day before, the Ministry of Justice had also stated in a notice, "In cases like Han Dong-hoon, a research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute and a suspect in the Channel A case, where the suspect maliciously hides the phone password and obstructs the investigation, we have instructed to consider legislation that enforces compliance under certain conditions such as court orders, referencing foreign legislations like those in the UK, and imposes sanctions for non-compliance."

This sparked criticism that the idea contradicts the principles of the Criminal Procedure Act and constitutional ideals based on the presumption of innocence. Civic groups such as the Lawyers for a Democratic Society and People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy issued statements and commentaries on the same day, strongly condemning Minister Choo's directive to consider enacting the "password disclosure law."

The Lawyers for a Democratic Society stated, "The Constitution clearly establishes the principle of refusal to self-incriminate, which protects everyone from being forced to make statements unfavorable to themselves in criminal matters," and "We condemn Minister Choo's directive to consider legislation that infringes on the constitutional right to refuse to testify."

They added, "The right to refuse to testify is the minimum device that substantially guarantees the defense rights of suspects and defendants," and "If sanctions are imposed for not disclosing the phone password, which is subject to the right to refuse to testify, it would directly violate the constitutional right to refuse to testify and the defense rights of suspects."

People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy also commented, "This is an attempt to introduce the 'obstruction of justice' crime, which was pushed by the Lee Myung-bak administration but discarded due to human rights concerns," and "The Ministry of Justice must immediately stop considering the introduction of this anti-human rights system that goes against prosecutorial reform."

They further argued, "The idea of punishing those who do not provide their phone passwords to the prosecution directly contradicts the constitutional purpose of protecting privacy," and "The Ministry of Justice, which should protect citizens' human rights and monitor and check the prosecution's anti-human rights investigative practices, has forgotten its duty by mentioning individual cases and considering such legislation."

Ultimately, the Ministry of Justice took a step back from the previous day’s stance by stating it is reviewing measures limited to certain serious crimes such as child pornography and cyberterrorism on the internet. This can be interpreted as an intention not to apply the law to coercion attempt charges against Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon or to general criminal suspects, thus attempting to contain the situation.

Prosecutor Han criticized Minister Choo strongly in a statement titled "Minister Choo’s Additional Facebook Post and Related Statements in the National Assembly," sent to reporters on the same day, saying, "Minister Choo is trying to continue baseless slanders that have already been proven false, aiming to undermine the foundation of this country's constitution for all citizens."

He questioned, "I want to ask whether the people have ever agreed to arbitrarily discard the fundamental principles of liberal democracy that protect the powerless majority, such as the constitutional prohibition against self-incrimination, due process, and the presumption of innocence, solely as retaliation against investigations into power corruption involving her own faction."

Prosecutor Han also stated, "I complied with two unreasonable searches and seizures, suspected to be for unrelated investigations, following procedures (Minister Choo falsely claimed in the National Assembly that I refused the search), and during the process, I was even subjected to official assault," adding, "Analyzing seized items is naturally the duty of investigative agencies (Minister Choo and others have publicly stated long ago that there is already substantial evidence, as far as I know)."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.