Judicial Yuan President Lai In-jaw (賴英照) was under fire yesterday amid growing calls for his resignation in the wake of bribery charges against senior judges and a prosecutor.
Earlier this week Lai said he was “enraged” by the case and promised to improve judicial discipline within two months.
The Judicial Reform Foundation yesterday said this was an empty promise as it called for Lai to step down immediately.
“I can’t believe that one of the detained judges is a member of the Judicial Yuan’s ‘disciplinary committee’ and ‘personnel affairs evaluation board.’ How can a person like this evaluate his coworkers?” Judicial Reform Foundation secretary-general Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正) said at a press conference.
Lin was referring to Taiwan High Court Judge Chen Jung-ho (陳榮和), who was detained on Wednesday along with High Court judges Lee Chun-ti (李春地) and Tsai Kuang-chih (蔡光治) and Banciao Prosecutor Chiu Mao-jung (邱茂榮) for allegedly accepting bribes from former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Miaoli County commissioner Ho Chih-hui (何智輝) in exchange for a not guilty verdict in a property case.
The foundation said Lai should establish an evaluation system — administered by a neutral party, not the Judicial Yuan — for judges to weed out the unqualified ones.
Huang Lin-lun (黃麟倫), deputy director of the Judicial Yuan’s Administration Department, attended the press conference, but dismissed criticism that the Judicial Yuan has been lax in pushing for judicial reform.
The Judicial Yuan has been studying the possibility of an independent review system for judges, Huang said.
When asked at a separate setting if Lai should resign, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said he could not comment because the corruption allegations against the judges and prosecutor are still being investigated.
However, he vowed to crack down on corruption, broaching the idea of making the UN Convention Against Corruption into law. He said he had already asked the Ministry of Justice to look into the matter.
It was deeply distressing to find out four judges allegedly took bribes, but feeling distressed was not enough, Ma said. Concrete steps had to be taken, he said.
He said it was important to put into practice the proposals made during a judicial reform forum 11 years ago, including enacting a law on judges. Such legislation was important because prosecutors and judges would be evaluated and they could be fired if they did not meet the necessary standards, he said.
“I always believe before you demand that somebody do something right, you must set a good example and never be afraid of disclosing family scandals,” he said. “Once government corruption is uncovered, we must take the initiative to investigate, deal with it in a lucid and speedy manner, cooperate with the investigation and explain to the public.”
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS