Former legislator says prosecutors visited her in jail

Former New Party legislator Hsieh Chi-ta (謝啟大) said yesterday that Hualien Prosecutor Lee Tsu-chun (李子春) and Taitung Prosecutor Yang Ta-chih (楊大智) visited her while she was in jail.

Hsieh complained that Ministry of Justice officials may take advantage of her conversation with the prosecutors to attack the pan-blue candidates in the presidential election campaign.

The ministry denied the charge.

"The ministry has double checked with the Taoyuan Female Prison where Ms. Hsieh served her three-month sentence. What she alleged is not necessarily true," the ministry said in a press release. "The tape is still at the prison for reference purposes and nobody is planning to take advantage of that tape as propaganda."

Hsieh began serving her sentence on Dec. 1 last year. She was convicted of defamation by the Taiwan High Court on Dec. 12, 2002.

When approached by reporters on Monday when she walked out of the jail, she said the ministry was taking advantage of the conversation between her, Yang and Lee and suspected that ministry officials may have sent the audio tape of the conversation to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) headquarters. She said the DPP may use the tape to attack Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and his running-mate in the election campaign, People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).

According to Hsieh, Yang and Lee visited her at the prison on Dec. 26 last year. For security reasons, the prison recorded their conversation. Hsieh said she was surprised to learn that high-ranking officials at the ministry had taken the tape.

Yang was a Hualien prosecutor but he requested to be transferred to Taitung last December because his wife is also working as a prosecutor there. He was accused of being a blue-camp supporter because of his criticism of the DPP government.

During the Hualien County commissioner by-election last summer, Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) launched a 24-hour roadside check of motorists to prevent vote-buying. Yang complained and said the check was unconstitutional.

Lee summoned President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on Jan. 14 as a witness in a corruption case. The case made Chen the first president in Taiwan's history to answer to a summons.

Lee was criticized of being biased toward the blue camp as he could have chosen other means to question Chen besides having Chen report to the prosecutors' office in Hualien, seen by critics as a waste of public funds.