The National Assembly will review an open petition calling for the release of uncensored images of those suspected of violent crimes, after the petition received over 50,000 signatures on the online parliamentary petition page, making it eligible for official deliberation.
According to the Assembly, the petition was forwarded to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Monday after it was signed by 54,244 people online from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1. A petition with over 50,000 signatures must be deliberated by the committee and can potentially be discussed in the wider Assembly with a view to changing the law.
The petition was first raised by reporter Yang Won-bo from a local broadcaster JTBC, who argued that photos released by the authorities should not hide the faces of suspects accused of violent crimes.
He pointed out that while the law dictates that some suspects' faces and personal information are released after deliberation by the legal authorities, such deliberations hardly ever happen.
"The blurs obscuring violent criminals should be removed. Releasing their information can deter similar crimes, and can serve to punish them on a social level. We need to go back to before 1998," he wrote.
Yang was referring to a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1998 allowing a suspect who had his or her face disclosed by the authorities to take legal action against the state. The nation's highest court at the time stated that even though it was in the public's best interest to know about the crime in question, it does not serve the public's interest to specify the suspect.
Yang said Korea has become a "nation with enhanced rights for perpetrators" since then, with the police and prosecution in most cases prohibited from publishing images of suspects' faces. It is conventional for suspects' faces to be hidden when they make public appearances.
In only a handful of cases has information about suspects in particularly violent crimes been released to the public, with the most recent change to the law passed in 2023 and implemented from Jan. 25 of this year. Suspects in particular types of crimes, including murder, sex crimes, sex crimes against minors, insurrection, and drug crimes can have their faces, ages and names revealed after deliberation by a committee composed of seven members from the police and legal community.
In April, a murder suspect by the name of Kim Re-ah -- accused of murdering his girlfriend and severely injuring her mother -- had his information revealed to the general public in the first application of the so-called "mugshot law" in 2024. Kim was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to life in prison by the Suwon District Court on Oct. 23, which he appealed five days later.
But such cases are rare, as only seven suspects -- all accused of murder -- had their information released this year.
In March of this year, JTBC released the name and photo of a 28-year-old man surnamed Ryu who brutally killed his girlfriend by stabbing her 191 times. Ryu was sentenced to 17 years in prison in the ruling following the report, and was sentenced to 23 years when his case was reviewed on appeal.
Ryu's case was one that had not been reviewed by the government deliberation committee for release of his mugshot and name.
