Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) lawyer yesterday filed an appeal with the Taiwan High Court against Chen’s detention ahead of his trial on corruption charges.
“We said in the appeal that the vote that saw Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun [蔡守訓] take over the Chen case from Chou Chan-chun [周占春] was the result of political pressure and that it violated the law and the Constitution, and that Chen was perturbed by the selection of Tsai,” Chen’s lawyer Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) told reporters in front of the Taiwan District Court yesterday afternoon.
The appeal also said that Chen’s behavior during the 16 days since his release proved it was unnecessary to detain him, Cheng said.
PHOTO: AP
Chou’s decision to release Chen without bail was a final ruling, Cheng said, and the prosecutors’ appeal to the Taiwan High Court and that court’s ruling that the District Court reconsider Chen’s release were therefore illegal.
Cheng said the flaws in judicial procedure in this case were not only detrimental to Chen, but a setback for the nation’s judiciary.
Tsai said last Tuesday that Chen would be detained, but that the court would not prohibit him from seeing visitors.
The former president was detained on Nov. 12 and held until Dec. 13, when he was indicted along with 13 others on charges of embezzlement, corruption and money laundering.
On Dec. 25, the Taiwan High Court ordered the Taipei District Court to reconsider its Dec. 18 decision confirming Chen’s release.
The High Court’s order was in response to an appeal filed by the Special Investigative Panel of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.
Also yesterday, a legislative committee dominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) asked the Judicial Yuan to investigate a district court judge who criticized Tsai and present a report on the matter within a month.
The Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee asked the Judicial Yuan to probe Shilin District Court Judge Hung Ying-hua (洪英花), whose criticism of Tsai was described by some of the KMT committee members as “audacious.”
Shortly after the Taipei District Court last week changed the presiding judge in Chen’s case, Hung and Huang Jui-hua (黃瑞華), president of the Ilan District Court, published articles saying the move violated judicial procedures.
On Nov. 17, Hung also criticized the Ministry of Justice over the Chen case in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
The committee also asked the Judicial Yuan to probe an allegation that Hung’s two brothers had used her position for extortion by promising to fix a land deal and a legal case. A report on the allegations and on Hung’s criticism of Tsai should be completed within a month, the committee said.
The committee’s decision came after KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) alleged during the question-and-answer session that one of Hung’s brothers was convicted of fraud in 1995 for accepting NT$3 million (US$30,000) in bribes in return for promising to fix a legal case.
Chiu said the presiding judge in that case had been Tsai and that he suspected Hung’s criticism of Tsai reflected a personal grudge.
Another of Hung’s brothers was convicted for his involvement in an illegal land deal, Chiu said, yet Hung was made judge of Shilin District Court. Chiu questioned her qualifications, saying that the courtroom was like a way station to her as she traveled back and forth between the judiciary and public office.
Chiu also said that Hung had once alleged that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had asked former Examination Yuan president Hsu Shui-teh (?w) to give her NT$300 million in October 1993 to talk her out of running for Changhua County commissioner.
Judicial Yuan Deputy Secretary-General Shen Shou-jing (沈守敬) said the yuan would launch an investigation into the matter.
At the same setting, Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) told the committee that the ministry would amend the Detention Act (羈押法) after the Council of Grand Justices ruled on Dec. 26 that it was unconstitutional to deny a detainee the right to file a court complaint alleging maltreatment by the detention center.
The grand justices said that Article 6 of the Detention Act and Article 14 of the Act’s regulations for implementation should be amended within two years.
Wang said legal revisions to the Detention Act were necessary because the legislation was outdated. The Detention Act was enacted in 1946 and implemented in 1947.
Committee members across party lines expressed support for the amendments.
Meanwhile, Chen has urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to unite, saying in a letter that the party’s opponent was not President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) but Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) told reporters after visiting Chen at the Taipei Detention Center that Chen was planning to write 50 letters, including to Hu and Ma, and would compile them into a book.
Ker said Chen had written eight so far, and that in one of the them, he urged the DPP to unite and emphasized that the party’s antagonist was Hu, not Ma.
Chen is suspected of money laundering, accepting bribes, forgery and embezzling NT$15 million (US$450,000) during his presidency.
He has accused the KMT administration of “political persecution” and of waging a “political vendetta” against him to curry favor with China.
His wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), has been charged and is being tried.
Ker said yesterday that Chen planned to pay his respects to Liu Po-yen (劉柏煙) after he gets out.
Liu, an 80-year-old retired teacher and former long-time KMT member, set himself on fire on Nov. 11 to protest actions by the KMT administration, including the government’s handling of anti-China protesters when Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) visited Taipei.
Ker visited the former president with Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), and daughter-in-law, Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), both of whom have been indicted for corruption and money laundering in connection with the case.
The couple filed a document to prosecutors last month saying they would like to clear up any misunderstanding about the source of the NT$570 million (US$17 million) in the pair’s overseas bank accounts and help prosecutors have the money transferred to Taiwan.
Wu’s lawyer, Lee Sheng-hsiung (李勝雄), also visited the detention center yesterday and asked Chen Chih-chung to take two books to the former president.
Lee said Wu wanted to visit her husband, but could not because of her poor health.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS