Shilin District Court Chief Judge Hung Ying-hua (洪英花) yesterday filed an appeal with the Control Yuan, accusing Judicial Yuan President Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏) and Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Lin Ching-fang (林錦芳) of political persecution.
Hung filed the charges after she was deemed unfit to be a chief judge by an anonymous vote conducted by the Judicial Yuan’s review committee in June. The Judicial Yuan is scheduled to convene a meeting on Monday to decide whether Hung should be removed from her post.
Hung yesterday said that when Rai took over the Judicial Yuan on Oct. 13, he amended regulations so that they allow him, via a review committee, to control the personnel arrangements for presiding judges.
“Rai has been busily engaged in political infighting since taking the helm of the Judicial Yuan. He is the one who’s not fit for the post and should step down,” Hung said.
Noting that Lin was a classmate of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Hung accused Lin of going along with Rai because he wanted to become a member of the Council of Grand Justices.
After filing her appeal with the Control Yuan, where she said she hopes the government watchdog will censure Rai and Lin, Hung proceeded to the Judicial Yuan and submitted an appeal for state compensation of NT$1.5 million (US$50,240) because of the damage to her reputation.
Hung is a relatively well-known judge who has been critical of the procedural aspects of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) corruption trial.
In December 2008, a panel of judges ordered that Judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春) be replaced by Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) in the corruption and money laundering trial of the former president and 12 co-defendants. The switch elicited speculation that the decision was procedurally flawed and politically motivated.
At the time, Hung published an article criticizing the switching of judges, saying it was illegal and that it had rendered the guilty verdict Tsai handed down to the former president invalid.
Declining to comment on the Hung case, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Deputy Secretary-General Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said the best way to solve issues concerning judges is to set up an assessment system to determine whether a judge is suitable for the post.
Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), on the other hand, accused Ma of seeking to control the judiciary by purging anyone who opposes him through review committees and assessment systems.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
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One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
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