Are opposition parties who control South Korea's National Assembly trying to grant a special committee extralegal powers to investigate a 2022 stampede that resulted in the death of 158 people? No, that's not true: a special Act bill making its way through the Assembly does not give a yet-to-be-formed committee powers reserved for the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of government to investigate what is known as the Itaewon tragedy.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published by @kmbc5131 on Tiktok, on July 29 2023 with a caption reading:
The Itaewon Tragedy Investigation Committee is going to have legislative, executive, judicial powers in its hand.
The video also claims those who blame or criticize victims of the tragedy may face punishment, saying:
Whoever blames or criticizes Itaewon victims, will spend up to 5 years in prison or be fined up to 50 million won.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Aug 10 03:56:48 2023 UTC)
The video originated from a Youtube channel called 'Politiko Political Science Center,' a self-described right-wing channel.
The special Act bill was submitted on April 20, 2023, to create the Itaewon Tragedy Investigation Committee as an independent body to investigate further the circumstances surrounding a stampede on Halloween night that led to the death of 158 people.
An investigative unit set up after the Itaewon Tragedy issued a report on January 13, 2023, in which it referred for prosecution 23 individuals, about half of them police officers. A separate bipartisan parliamentary special committee probe concluded on January 17th with calls for an independent investigation after the ruling and opposition parties split over accusations that the ruling party's Interior Minister be held liable.
The liberal opposition party-controlled National Assembly submitted the special Act bill to set up an investigative committee to "Defend the Itaewon Tragedy Victims' Rights, Investigate the Truth, and Prevent Reoccurance of the Tragedy."
Those opposed to the bill and the decision to set up the investigative committee claim the Act violates the constitutionally mandated separation of powers by giving the committee members legislative, executive, and judicial powers. However, the Act says the committee may only request support from the government's legislative, administrative, and judiciary branches.
According to a draft of the bill submitted to the National Assembly, the committee may request that the parliament establish a special prosecution office when there is a need for further legal investigation. The committee may request the government delegate civil servants to assist in the committee's work, and it may refer suspected crimes to judicial bodies for further investigation and prosecution.
The draft bill does not call for the punishment of critics of the victims, but it does provide protection for the committee from those who might deliberately sabotage the committee's investigation. There is also no reference to any responsibility on the part of the government to provide jobs for victims of the Itaewon tragedy.
