Task force's neutrality questioned

Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生) yesterday mailed a letter to Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to remind him of the possible unconstitutional nature of the draft statute that would establish a task force to investigate the election-eve assassination attempt on the president and vice-president.

Weng's mail to Wang referred to the latest version of the proposed statute, which would give the members of the special task force the authorization to issue orders to prosecutors throughout the investigation of the case. Weng implied in his letter that lawmakers should amend the current version of the stature before they pass it, or else it would be invalidated anyway because of conflict with the Constitution.

Wang said yesterday that he would inform the legislature of Weng's letter, but that the final decision still depended on the lawmakers.

In addition to Weng's letter, judicial reform activists yesterday also complained about the draft. They said that, in addition to violating the Constitution and human rights, it would compromise the independence of prosecutors' investigation.

"It is understandable that there is a need to establish a special task force to investigate the case, because everybody wants to know the truth," said Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), head of the Judicial Reform Foundation.

"But if the special task force has the authority to participate in the investigation process or order prosecutors about, that will be totally wrong," Kao said.

Kao made his remarks during a press conference at the National Bar Association yesterday morning.

According to the latest version of the statute, which was endorsed by lawmakers from across party lines, the special investigative task force will be established under the legislature and its members will be lawmakers from different parties. Judicial reform activists have expressed concern that task force members' authority to interfere in prosecutors' work could jeopardize the neutrality of the investigation.

Taipei Society chairman Hung Yu-hung (洪裕宏) said that the judiciary and legislature are parallel systems that should not be mixed up.

"It is definitely necessary to set up a third party, such as the special task force, to investigate the incident. And it is also definitely necessary that members of the special task force be authorized to conduct the necessary investigations and interrogations," Hung said.

"However, prosecutors's investigation must be neutral. That is the bottom line," he said.

Prosecutors' Reform Association (檢察官改革協會) deputy director Yang Ta-chih (楊大智), who is also a Taitung prosecutor, said that prosecutors' independence was crucial to uncovering the truth in all cases.

"In Taiwan, we have come this far maintaining that spirit, so we should not quit at this moment just because of a special case like the [shooting] incident," Yang said.

"I believe that we prosecutors will be more than happy to provide our opinions and suggestions for lawmakers to come up with something else to replace the current proposal," Yang said.

Yang has been a controversial character since complaining about the crackdown on vote buying launched by Minister of the Interior Yu Chen-hsien (余政憲) ahead of the Hualien County commissioner by-election last summer. Yang had said that Yu's order that random roadside checks of motorists be conducted to prevent potential vote-buying was unconstitutional and a violation of human rights.