MOJ to Expand Court Arraignment Process

Criminal suspects sought on an arrest warrant will be required to appear in court for arraignment under the law. The Ministry of Justice held a policy committee meeting on Sept. 19 and decided to expand the mandatory `arraignment process` to cover all the criminal suspects. To this end, the ministry will prepare a revision of the law and put up the bill in the National Assembly.

So far, those applying for court arraignment have been asked to appear in court. ˝We conclude that the existing law might fall short of protecting suspects` human rights by requiring suspects to file for court arraignment individually,˝ said an official at MOJ.

Meantime, participants at the meeting agreed to revise the Social Security Act to ease penalties applied to minor offenses, for which criminals are often dually sentenced.

The committee has also decided to expand the minor offense investigation system, in which level 5 officials at the prosecutors` office deal with minor offense cases, to local branches nationwide.

Tae-Hoon Lee jefflee@donga.com