A legislative committee yesterday passed a resolution condemning Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) and the Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office for holding the legislature in contempt after SID officials failed once again to attend the committee’s meeting yesterday to answer legislators’ questions.
Lawmakers on the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee voiced their anger after SID spokesman Yang Jung-tsung (楊榮宗) and SID prosecutor Cheng Shen-yuan (鄭深元) — who was in charge of wiretapping Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and the legislature’s switchboard — failed to attend the meeting.
Yang and Cheng were both also absent from the committee’s meeting on Thursday last week.
Legislators, who believe that Huang has instructed the pair not to meet with the committee, passed a resolution condemning Huang and the SID and referred Yang and Cheng to the Control Yuan for investigation.
The Committee’s convener, DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻), said that since Yang and Cheng failed to appear at the meeting on Thursday last week, legislators requested that Huang tell the two to attend yesterday’s meeting, but “obviously Huang has ignored the committee’s request.”
When answering reporters’ questions before the meeting started, Minister of Justice Lo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) said that “it’s inappropriate for lawmakers to ask prosecutors to be present at legislative meetings and to answer legislators’ questions related to cases of which they are in charge.”
“In such an arrangement, it is like having prosecutors face a public trial, and legislators might misjudge the scope of questioning the prosecutors on public affairs and specific judicial cases should accept,” Lo added.
Lo said that prosecutors are not under constitutional obligation to be present before the legislature and take questions from lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor Association, ROC (Taiwan), the nationwide organization of prosecutors, issued a statement saying that legislature’s rights of investigation and interpellation cannot apply to questioning prosecutors about specific cases, citing the Council of Grand Justices’ Interpretations No. 325, No. 461 and No. 585.
“Prosecutors exercise their authority independently, in accordance with the Constitution, and their investigations cannot be interfered with by political powers,” the association said.
It said that the request by the legislature is unconstitutional and leaves open the possibility that lawmakers might interfere with judicial affairs.
The association also launched a signature motion yesterday inviting prosecutors nationwide to protect prosecutors’ rights.
DPP lawmakers criticized the prosecutors’ refusal to attend a Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee meeting and the Prosecutor Association’s “distortion” of the grand justices’ interpretations.
The committee asked the prosecutors to attend the meeting to hear their opinions about the ministry’s special panel, which had released a report on the wiretapping controversy, not to collect information on ongoing investigations or specific cases, DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) told a press conference.
The association’s citing of the Interpretation No. 461 was a mistake and a distortion, Wu added, because the interpretation only discussed whether the chief of the general staff is required to be interpellated by lawmakers.
DPP Legislator Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪) said that legislators are smart enough to know that they could not ask prosecutors about ongoing cases, adding that the committee was only trying to understand the details of the panel’s investigation.
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
ALL QUIET: The Philippine foreign secretary told senators she would not respond to questions about whether Lin Chia-lung was in the country The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that a business delegation is visiting the Philippines, but declined to say whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) is part of the group, as Philippine lawmakers raised questions over Lin’s reported visit. The group is being led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-chin (黃昭欽), Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA) chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) vice president Lotta Danielsson, the ministry said in a statement. However, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lin is leading the delegation of 70 people. Filinvest New Clark City Innovation Park
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
RSS