The Taipei District Court was the scene of intense exchanges yesterday between former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), his attorneys and prosecutors during a hearing to decide whether Chen would be detained ahead of his trial on corruption charges, but no decision had been made at press time.
Chen’s lawyers asked that the three judges not review an earlier decision made by a different panel of judges in the same court.
New Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) was chosen to replace previous judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春), who had released Chen without bail, in a ballot by judges on Thursday night — a move that pan-green figures said was the result of political pressure.
Tsai asked Chen: “You do not admit to the prosecutors’ charges against you, is that correct?”
Chen said: “No,” adding, “I am innocent of the corruption prosecutors have charged me with, and I can’t accept such humiliation and the destruction of my dignity.”
Chen told Tsai: “You found [President] Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) not guilty in the misuse of his special allowance during his time as Taipei mayor, therefore I am also innocent and should not have been indicted for misuse of the state affairs fund.”
Prosecutor Chou Shih-yu (周士瑜) then detailed why prosecutors considered it necessary to keep Chen in custody.
“We seized documents from the Ministry of National Defense and National Security Bureau relating to cases against Chen, from his residence, that proved Chen has been working hard to collect information related to his case.
In addition, Chen was able to identify all 25 witnesses in the investigation. Prosecutors warned that the defendant could collude with other suspects and witnesses and hinder their investigation into several other alleged corruption cases involving Chen and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍),” Chou Shih-yu said.
Prosecutors added they opposed Chen’s release on bail because they had discovered he was still in possession of alleged ill-gotten funds, and if he were allowed to remain free may hide them.
The Taiwan High Court on Sunday ordered the Taipei District Court to reconsider its Dec. 18 decision confirming Chen’s release.
The High Court made the order following an appeal filed by the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) on Thursday against the Taiwan District Court’s decision confirming his release.
It was the second time the SIP had succeeded in having the Taiwan High Court call for a review of the Taipei District Court’s decision. The first was when the SIP filed an appeal with the High Court on Dec. 17, after which the latter ordered the district court to reconsider the release.
Chen was detained on Nov. 12 and indicted on Dec. 12 on charges of embezzling government funds, money laundering and forgery.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS