An associate law professor at National Taiwan University said yesterday that whomever was raided, interrogated or indicted by the members of the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Com-mittee would not be protected by any law or legal court because they have no superior law jurisdiction to appeal to.
"That is not only against the Constitution but also against human rights," Tsai Tsung-chen (蔡宗珍) told the Council of Grand Justices during the second debate on the consitutionality of the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例).
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
According to the statute, committee members are authorized to summon, interrogate and even indict a person without any prior approval, whenever necessary. How-ever, since the committee does not belong to any government offices and does not have a superior office, those whom it lists as a defendant will not be able to appeal whenever a punishment is determined by the committee members.
PHOTO: CNA
Speaking on behalf of the legislature, attorney Nigel Lee (
"`Cooperation' will be the relationship between prosecutors and committee members. They [the committee] will not get involved in prosecutors' jobs at all," Lee said.
People First Party Legislator Chen Chin-hsing (陳進興) said that the statute was the result of a four-month long negotiation between political parties at the legislature and that lawmakers had passed a well-designed law.
"It is flawless because we passed the law after reviewing it for four months," Chen Chin-hsing said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Ching (尤清), however, disagreed.
"Approval of the statute was the result of a political tug of war," Yu said. "It was the pan-blue camp's policy to pass the statute and that camp is the majority in the legislature. What do you expect?"
Yesterday's debate was the final one before the Council of Grand Justices. The council is expected to deliver a decision on the constitutionality of the statute toward the end of this year.
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