Newly-enacted public intimidation law sparks confusion in law enforcement: report
Despite a revision to the Criminal Act aimed at curbing online threats of random violence, police stations nationwide are scrambling to determine which department should handle reports of the newly designated crime, according to local media reports on Monday.
A police official told Yonhap News Agency that the National Office of Investigation, under the National Police Agency, has not yet issued clear guidelines on how to respond to cases under the new "public intimidation" provision.
The revision, passed by the National Assembly in February and enacted last month, was intended to crack down on the growing number of online posts threatening indiscriminate attacks.
"Even if we get a report (of public intimidation), the Detective Division would hand over it to the Cybercrime Division since it's an internet posting, and the Cybercrime Division would claim that the crime is unrelated legal decree that it handles... It would be assigned at some point, but the assignment is delayed," the official was quoted as saying.
Under the new Article 116-2 of the Criminal Act, public intimidation -- defined as a threat of harm against lives and bodies of random or multiple people -- is punished by up to five years in prison or a fine of 20 million ($13,900). The provision also stipulates that habitual offenders may face penalties up to 1.5 times the upper limit of the aforementioned punishment.
Since the law took effect, it has been applied in several cases, including a March incident in which officers from Cheonan Dongnam Police Station arrested a man for public intimidation. The suspect told elementary schools in person that he wanted to kill a certain pcolitician.
The Yongin Dongbu Police Station later in the month requested the first-ever arrest warrant for the crime of public intimidation for a suspect, who warned of a knife attack if the Constitutional Court confirms the impeachment of then-President Yoon Suk Yeol. The request was rejected by court, who said that there is not enough evidence to prove necessity of the warrant.
One of the often-cited loophole of intimidation, stipulated in the Article 283 of the Criminal Act, is that it cannot be punished if the victim does not express his or her will for the perpetrator to be punished. As such, it had been difficult to apply intimidation to threats of random attacks in which the victim cannot be specified.
The National Police Agency told local media that application of the public intimidation law has been discussed by the NOI officials, and the specific guidelines will be delivered to police stations soon. As of now, it is being instructed that online crimes are to be handled by the Cybercrime Division and the offline ones are to be taken by the Detective Division.
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