The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday held a press conference showing how the Special Investigation Division (SID) wiretapped the party’s caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), and also revealed that it had inadvertently wiretapped the daughter and husband of High Prosecutors’ Office Prosecutor Lin Shiow-tao (林秀濤).
Party legislators unanimously blasted the division for overreach and acting above and beyond the parameters of its given powers.
On Aug. 31 SID Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) informed President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of alleged lobbying involving Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), Ker, former minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫), High Prosecutors’ Office Head Prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) and Lin.
Photo: Taipei Times
During the wiretapping of Lin, the division found that the telephone they believed to be Lin’s was actually used by her daughter, and had quickly terminated the wiretapping before applying for another wiretap approval for the telephone Lin was using, the division said on Wednesday.
The SID said that the telephone used by Lin’s daughter was tapped for less than a week.
Huang’s admission on Wednesday that the division had tapped Lin’s telephone sparked heated debate among legal experts and also drew fire from DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
That a junior-high school student was placed under wiretap and surveillance is a great setback to the democratic values Taiwan holds dear, Su said, adding that Huang should step down as prosecutor-general and be investigated.
Su called on Ma to take responsibility and explain the situation.
DPP legislators also lambasted the division, with Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) saying that no one really knew how many wiretaps had been carried out, adding that the lack of knowledge was terrifying.
Kuan said that all her data had been provided by the division, and that the documents received on Sept. 17 had showed a total of only 28 wiretap approvals, six of which were related to Ker’s case. She added that after Huang’s admission on Wednesday that the division had also wiretapped Lin, two new cases were revealed.
Kuan also pointed to the four wiretap approvals that were to be sent to Ker provided by Huang and said they were only vaguely connected to Ker.
The approvals had been used to wiretap former KMT Tainan City councilor Wu Chien-pao (吳健保), Ker, Lin’s husband, and Wu’s lawyer Tu Ying-ta (杜英達). Wu was jailed for profiteering in 2006.
Aside from being accused of lobbying Wang to influence Tseng, Chen, and Lin to relieve legal pressure from himself, Ker was sentenced to six months in jail for violating the Business Accounting Act (商業會計法) in 1997 when he was general manager of Formosa Telecom Investment Co (全民電通). The court allowed the sentence to be commuted to a fine. The ruling was appealed twice. A retrial at the Taiwan High Court found Ker not guilty.
Kuan said the latest evidence indicated that Ker’s wiretap had been approved because he was potentially involved in the bailing of Wu. This was tied to a bribery case in 2010 in which Taiwan High Court judges Chen Jun-ho (陳榮和), Lee Chun-ta (李春他), Tsai Kuang-chih (蔡光志), and Banciao District Prosecutor Office prosecutor Chiu Mao-jung (邱茂榮) had taken bribes to rule former KMT Legislator Ho Chih-hui (何智輝) not guilty in a graft case.
Kuan lambasted that the division had been using the 2011 SID case No. 61 (一百年特他字第六十一號), which had been filed to wiretap all possible suspects in the judges bribery case in 2010, as a ploy to use the judiciary system’s shame that its members had been embroiled in bribery cases to ask for wiretap warrants, adding a call for the division to provide the data for every case that had been wiretapped by warrants applied for under No. 61.
DPP Legislator You Meinu (尤美女) also said that only cases that merited at least three years of imprisonment as a sentence, but the intentions for committing the crime and evidence linking the crime and the perpetrator could not be found outside of wiretapping could apply for wiretaps.
The four wiretap approval notices provided by Huang showed that lobbying itself was not an element necessitating wiretapping, You said.
DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) also called for the division to bring out all the evidence, while Yao Pasuya (姚文智) also called for Huang to step down.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft