The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled in favor of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) provisional injunction seeking to retain his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) membership and position as head of the legislature.
The court ruled that Wang would be able to retain his membership and rights as a KMT member after submitting a guarantee of about NT$9.38 million (US$314,300), Taipei District Court spokesperson Lai Chien-yi (賴劍毅) told reporters.
The guarantee was calculated based on Wang’s monthly salary and the remainder of his current term of about two-and-a-half years, Lai said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The ruling was considered a victory for Wang in his battle with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to keep his political power.
‘ILLEGAL LOBBYING’
The 72-year-old senior politician, who has been accused of being involved in illegal lobbying of the judiciary, had his KMT membership revoked on Wednesday, which the party said should invalidate his status as a KMT legislator-at-large and as legislative speaker.
Wang decided to take the matter to court after the KMT failed to grant him a 20-day appeal period and immediately notified the Central Election Commission (CEC) about Wang’s party membership being revoked.
The court rejected the KMT’s offer of a counter guarantee in its challenge to Wang’s claim, Lai said.
Wang’s injunction was accepted because his loss of position as legislative speaker and a legislator-at-large would be irreversible if the injunction was rejected, Lai said, adding that Wang’s membership would not be affected before another civil lawsuit that Wang had filed said otherwise.
An additional temporary restraining order filed by the Wang camp late on Thursday night, which argued that Wang should retain his position as speaker, was dismissed, the spokesperson said.
Wang’s lawyer, Hsu Ying-chieh (許英傑), told reporters that the ruling was “a complete victory” in terms of the provisional injunction, despite dismissal of the restraining order.
“We are glad the judges have made a critical decision in this historic case,” Hsu said.
The lawyer said the court’s upholding of Wang’s claim was crucial because the KMT’s decision was a revocation of his party membership rather than as a lawmaker or speaker.
“As the revocation of Wang’s party membership was invalidated, the KMT’s moves after the revocation have been nullified as well, which means the CEC’s notification to void Wang’s speaker position was ineffective,” Hsu said.
Chen Ming (陳明), the KMT’s lawyer, told reporters that his client planned to file an appeal within 10 days.
Chen claimed that Wang was disqualified as a KMT legislator-at-large and as legislative speaker immediately after his party membership was revoked.
At around 9:30pm last night, Wang delivered a short statement calling for unity within the party “under the leadership of President Ma Ying-jeou” to work together to meet shared challenges.
Wang reiterated that he will be a KMT member “forever and ever.”
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS