Prosecutors Investigate 709 Individuals in 22nd General Election Cases... 56 Already Processed

As the 22nd National Assembly election was held on the 10th, the prosecution announced that it is investigating 709 election-related offenders in connection with this general election.

On the 11th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office stated that as of midnight the previous day, 765 election offenders related to the 22nd National Assembly election had been booked, and 709 are currently under investigation.

Seoul Seocho-dong Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

Specifically, out of the total 765 booked individuals, 5 have been prosecuted, 51 have been dismissed without prosecution, and a total of 56 have already been processed.

Compared to the 21st general election, where 1,270 individuals were booked, 16 prosecuted, and 60 dismissed without prosecution, leaving 1,194 under investigation as of election day, the number of election offenders has significantly decreased.

However, unlike previous statistics, the current prosecution data does not include election offenders who were reported to the police and are being investigated independently by the police without warrant applications.

Additionally, in the case where three offenders were arrested for criminal trespassing by breaking into administrative welfare centers designated as early voting stations and installing cameras, the prosecution stated that since the charges did not include violations of the Public Official Election Act, these cases were not included in the statistics.

By type of crime, the figures are ▲ dissemination of false information and black propaganda offenders 315 (41.2%) ▲ money-related election offenses 141 (18.4%) ▲ election violence and obstruction offenses 34 (4.4%) ▲ illegal acts by public officials and organizations 31 (4.1%), showing that dissemination of false information and black propaganda offenses were the most common. This trend has continued since the 19th general election.

Compared to the 21st general election, the proportion of major election crime types was generally similar, but the rate of dissemination of false information and black propaganda offenses increased by 4.4 percentage points from 36.8% to 41.2%.

A prosecution official stated, "Since election cases are subject to a short six-month statute of limitations, we will thoroughly cooperate with related agencies such as the police and the National Election Commission to promptly share information related to cases from the early stages of investigation and ensure thorough investigation and handling of election crimes."

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