The Corruption Investigation Office Opposes Yoon's Pledge to Repeal Article 24 of the Corruption Investigation Office Act: "It Must Be Continuously Enforced"

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (HCIO) has reportedly expressed opposition to President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol's pledge to abolish Article 24 of the HCIO Act, which he recently labeled as a toxic clause.

According to legal circles on the 18th, the HCIO responded to related inquiries sent by Rep. Kim Hyung-dong of the People Power Party, stating that "Article 24 of the HCIO Act needs to be continuously enforced," and added, "This provision prevents arbitrary reduction, expansion, or concealment suspicions by existing investigative agencies, thereby ensuring public trust in the overall investigation."

The HCIO further stated, "If overlapping investigations by multiple agencies proceed, there is a high possibility of leakage of investigation secrets concerning high-ranking officials' crimes, which have significant social repercussions, and human rights violations such as double investigations of related parties may occur, so it is necessary to prevent this."

Additionally, the HCIO emphasized, "Given the current need to protect human rights and maintain confidentiality during investigations, Article 24 of the HCIO Act, which stipulates the HCIO chief's authority to request case transfers and the obligation of other agencies to notify the HCIO, must be continuously enforced."

President-elect Yoon announced on the 14th of last month, as part of his judicial pledges, that he would "abolish Article 24 of the HCIO Act." He defined this clause as a "toxic clause." Article 24 of the HCIO Act states that "If the HCIO chief deems it appropriate for another investigative agency to handle a case due to the progress of the investigation or controversies over fairness, the chief may request the transfer of the case to that agency, and the agency must comply with the transfer." President-elect Yoon fears that under this provision, the HCIO could take cases involving state power interference and then suppress them. He argues that in such cases, the HCIO would degenerate from a simple investigative agency into a pro-government intelligence agency and fail to function properly.

The HCIO and the prosecution have clashed over the standards and methods of case transfers stipulated in this clause. After receiving the case of former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui's illegal travel ban from the prosecution, the HCIO requested a so-called "conditional re-transfer," asking the prosecution to return the case to the HCIO when deciding on prosecution after investigation. The prosecution rejected this, leading to a strong conflict.

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