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.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS