A Red Notice is a notice to police agencies worldwide that a person is wanted, and requests Interpol members to help locate wanted individuals for arrest and extradition.
The Taipei District Court held a hearing yesterday evening to decide whether or not to detain Wu Shih-tsai (吳思材), another key player in the scandal.
Prosecutors made a request to the Taipei District Court on April 25 to detain Wu after interviewing him, but the court turned down the request, citing insufficient evidence. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office immediately appealed to the Taiwan High Court, requesting it return the case to the Taipei District Court for reconsideration.
The Taiwan High Court ruled yesterday that the district court must reconsider the case.
The DPP legislative caucus yesterday urged the public to help law enforcement officers locate and arrest Ching.
“It is about the national interest and concerns everybody,” DPP whip William Lai (賴清德) told a press conference at the caucus office yesterday morning.
While KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) said that Ching was a friend of a friend and that he would meet Ching sometime next week, possibly in Shanghai, Lai said that Chiu is supposed to help the government since he is a lawmaker.
“It is not time for [Chiu] to play hero,” Lai said. “Our priority is to find [Ching] and get the stolen money back.”
DPP whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that the scandal had seriously harmed the DPP and the damage would not be repaired easily. He said he believed that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was not directly involved.
The two brokers, Ching and Wu, were two notorious liars and thieves and two of his friends have also had money stolen by the pair, he said.
“Honestly, I have no idea how officials could pay the money without double checking,” Ker said.
Meanwhile, the legislature’s Procedure Committee agreed to include a proposal from the KMT caucus to require Premier Chang and other Cabinet officials to report to the legislature on how the Cabinet intends to deal with the scandal. The proposal was placed on the agenda for Friday’s plenary session.
KMT caucus acting secretary-general Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said Chang should explain the matter to the legislature on behalf of Chiou.
“This is the only way the Democratic Progressive Party government can apologize to the public in its remaining days in office,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
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