The justice ministry on Monday issued an advance notice of revisions to rules on investigations that will drastically expand the scope of the prosecution’s power over supplementary probes and closed cases.

The revisions seek to further restrict the police’s right to close a case, which was one of the highlights of revisions to the Prosecutors' Office Act and the Criminal Procedure Act that parliament passed in January 2020.

The latest move comes after the justice ministry expanded the scope of crimes for which prosecutors can initiate an investigation through a revision of an enforcement decree last September.

With the revisions, prosecutors will be able to conduct supplementary probes after securing cases from the police. Previously, police were charged with such probes even if it was the prosecution that requested them.

While current regulations restrict the prosecution’s ability to investigate cases that the police do not hand over, the latest revisions will grant such authority to prosecutors if police fail to accept a request for a reinvestigation.