hankyoreh

By Ko Na-mu　
　　
Democratic Labor Party Chairwoman Lee Jung-hee raised charges Monday of unreasonable police investigations for National Security Act violations, noting that the number of bookings under the Lee Myung-bak administration increased by 2.5 times over the Roh Moo-hyun administration while the indictment rate fell by half.
“The three years of the Lee Myung-bak administration have seen a sharp rise in the number of people booked on charges of violating the National Security Act, yet the number of individuals indicted has dropped substantially,” Lee Jung-hee said. “This shows the unreasonable numbers-focused law enforcement efforts of the police and their abuse of the National Security Act.”
According to figures submitted to Lee by the National Police Agency, the number of people booked on National Security Act violations under the Roh administration stood at 33 in 2005, 35 in 2006, and 39 in 2007. Most of the suspects were indicted, with an average prosecution rate of 94 percent over the three-year period. Under the Lee administration, the number of individuals booked rose sharply from 40 in 2008 to 70 in 2009 and 151 in 2010. In contrast, the number of suspects actually indicted stood at 37 in 2008, 33 in 2009, and 60 in 2010, representing a 50 percent drop in the average indictment rate.
The number of suspected detained also rose from around ten in the years from 2005 to 2009 to 21 in 2010. Lee Jung-hee’s analysis was that this represented an increase in “unreasonable investigations,” with individuals booked under the Lee administration even for cases where there was no clear violation of the National Security Act.
In particular, it was revealed that of the 151 individuals booked in 2010, some 45 of them were Internet users booked for violating Article 7 of the National Security Act prohibiting “incitement and praise of the enemy” after posting opinions on the web at the time of the Cheonan sinking and artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island.
In a telephone interview Monday with the Hankyoreh, the public security division of the National Police agency said, “The indictment rate is only low because the investigations are not yet complete for 25 and 82 of the suspects booked in 2009 and 2010, respectively.”
“The number of people booked increased last year because there were a lot of Internet users who incited and praised North Korea on the Internet at the times of the Cheonan incident and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island,” the division explained.
The National Police Agency cited the large number of arrest warrant rejections recently for suspected National Security Act violators as a reason for the investigation delays.
　　
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