Central District Prosecution Office launches ‘Non-Referral Review Division’... 9 prosecutors to revisit cases closed by police

[Financial News] The Seoul Central District Prosecution Office has set up a Non-Referral Review Division to re-examine cases the police closed without referral after finding no suspicion, and assigned nine prosecutors to it. It is a key mechanism for checking police investigations under the new criminal justice system, in which prosecutors can no longer investigate cases directly. The office will place no limit on the number of reinvestigation requests and will seek the removal from duty and disciplinary action against officers who fail to comply without a valid reason.
The Seoul Central District Prosecution Office said on the 15th that it had established Non-Referral Review Divisions 1 and 2 as part of an organizational restructuring following the launch of the Prosecution Office, and assigned nine prosecutors. The team comprises three deputy chief prosecutors and six prosecutors with at least 10 years of experience, with backgrounds in fields including anti-corruption, tax crimes, cybercrime and information technology crimes.
The Non-Referral Review Division will review cases not referred by the police, request reinvestigations and handle objections filed by victims and others. It will also handle requests for disciplinary action against judicial police officials and consider their removal from duty; process applications for relief from suspects and victims concerning abuses of investigative authority; and review warrants requested by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
The division will have no shortage of cases. In the year from September last year through August, the existing criminal divisions and the Major Economic Crimes Investigation Unit received 29,790 cases that had not been referred by the police and 13,431 cases in which investigations had been suspended, for a total of 43,221. That amounts to an average of 3,602 cases a month, or about 73% of the office’s total 59,224 cases received over the same period. These cases will be transferred to the Non-Referral Review Division.
There are also a considerable number of appeals. According to the Prosecution Office, about 29.5% of all records involving cases not referred by the police or suspended investigations are referred following an objection by a party, and the share is much higher for complaints and accusations involving victims.
The Prosecution Office said it would request reinvestigations without limit in cases where the investigation was inadequate or the assessment of evidence or application of the law was flawed. If an adequate reinvestigation cannot be expected, it plans to designate a higher-level investigative office or another investigative body to conduct one. It also said it would seek the removal from duty and request disciplinary action against officers in charge who fail to comply with a reinvestigation request without a valid reason.
The warrant review process has also been revised. The Non-Referral Review Division will now review all warrants requested by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, which had previously been reviewed by the Human Rights Protection Division. However, warrants requested by local police stations other than the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, as well as warrants in specialized areas such as sexual violence, will continue to be handled by the relevant criminal divisions and specialized departments.
A representative case involved a suspect who caused an accident while driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.254%. The case was not referred after the victims changed their statements, but a prosecutor found that the initial statement documented pain and that a medical certificate for the injuries had also been submitted, and indicted the suspect for causing injury through dangerous driving under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes. Other cases included uncovering driver-switching after a traffic accident and reopening an indecent assault case involving a 14-year-old girl that had been closed without referral because the victim’s account was considered inconsistent.
A Prosecution Office official said, “We will review case files to a standard comparable to that for referred cases and assess the legality and appropriateness of cases not referred, ensuring that unlawful or inadequate investigations do not leave victims unfairly harmed or prevent them from obtaining redress because cases are buried.” 

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