Prosecutors Identify 26 Perjury Offenders... Perjury Due to Admission and Personal Ties Most Common

Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office, commencing operations on the 19th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] The prosecution has conducted a focused investigation on perjury offenders who disrupted judicial order, identifying 26 individuals.

On the 23rd, the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office Trial Division (Chief Prosecutor Kim Jae-hwa) announced that it had identified 26 perjury offenders, indicting one in custody and 13 without detention. The prosecution explained that these results were achieved through a focused investigation over two months starting from mid-October.

The prosecution stated that perjury causes distrust in the judicial order and allows the real criminals to evade punishment, which is why they conducted a focused investigation on perjury offenders. Additionally, due to recent amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act limiting the evidentiary power of the prosecution's suspect interrogation records, reliance on witness testimony has become inevitable. The prosecution said, "With the revision of the investigation commencement regulations in September, perjury was explicitly included within the scope of the prosecution's direct investigation," adding, "Given the nature of crimes committed in court, only the prosecution can promptly respond, so we initiated a focused investigation on perjury offenders."

According to the prosecution, the rate of perjury in the original cases involving violent and economic crimes was high at 35% and 38%, respectively. The motives for the crimes included acknowledgment/friendship (9 people), change of mind after agreement (7 people), minimizing or concealing one's own fault (5 people), economic purposes (3 people), and hiding accomplices (2 people). The prosecution analyzed that the predominance of perjury based on acknowledgment and friendship, regardless of the type of original crime, is due to "a lack of awareness of the seriousness of perjury crimes and the unique characteristic of our society that values acknowledgment."

The prosecution stated, "We will thoroughly uncover even those who instigate or aid and abet perjury, establishing the perception that perjury offenders will definitely be punished," and added, "We will strive to establish a judicial order that the public can trust."

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