Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) yesterday filed a lawsuit against eight people, accusing them of illegally accessing court records and defaming him by publicizing a 2012 audio recording in which he apologized to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for falsely accusing her of masterminding a shooting in 2010.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Chiu denied that he had ever apologized in court to Tsai, who had sued him for claiming on a political talk show that she was behind the shooting of KMT Central Standing Committee member Sean Lien (連勝文) during an election campaign event in 2010.
His denial prompted the DPP to make public a copy of the court transcript as well as a voice recording, confirming that he had indeed made an apology.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“As the remark might have created a negative image of the candidate, I felt anxious afterward, and therefore would like to express my apologies,” Chiu said in the transcript.
Political commentators Chung Nien-huang (鍾年晃) and Clara Chou (周玉蔻) on Wednesday also released the audio recording of Chiu’s recitation of his statement of apology in court.
Chiu held a news conference yesterday morning vowing that he would sue those responsible for releasing the court records.
He proceeded to the Taipei District Court and filed a lawsuit against Tsai and seven other DPP officials and political commentators who had publicized the recording.
Chiu said he suspected that the DPP had illegally obtained the recording and modified it.
“Can one just spread a court recording like that?” he asked, urging the court to conduct a voice identification of the recording.
The former lawmaker, who is currently a New Party legislator-at-large candidate, added that he would investigate who obtained the recording from the court or possibly “hacked” into the court’s system.
When asked whether it was his voice in the recording, Chiu said he did not know because he had not and would not listen to it.
“The authenticity of it is in doubt and it was obtained illegally. According to the ‘fruit of the poisonous tree’ doctrine, evidence that is obtained illegally is illegal,” Chiu said.
Writing on Facebook, Chiu said that the DPP was attacking him because Tsai “wants to destroy my credibility and heroic image.”
Many Internet users responded by saying that his remarks would only make him a laughingstock.
DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) wrote on Facebook that the DPP was not involved in “cracking telecom records,” as Chiu said.
“Rather, we are cracking Chiu’s lies,” Chen wrote.
The DPP said the KMT, which has continued to make baseless accusations about Tsai being involved in illegal land speculation, is itself the “poisonous tree of democratic politics.”
DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said Chiu was being illogical by denying on one hand that he had apologized, while admitting on the other that the recording was obtained from the court.”
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS: Trump and Xi respect each other, are in a unique position to do something great, and they want to do that together, the US envoy to China said The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday. Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington
DEEPENING TIES: The two are boosting cooperation in response to China’s coercive actions and have signed MOUs on search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling efforts Taiwan and Japan are moving to normalize joint coast guard training and considering the inclusion of other allies, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Both nations’ coast guards in June sent vessels to the seas south of the Sakishima Islands to conduct joint training, the report said, adding that it was the second joint maritime training exercise since the nations severed formal diplomatic ties in September 1972. Japan dispatched the Nagoya Coast Guard’s Mizuho, a 134m, 6,000-tonne patrol vessel which can carry a helicopter, while the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent the 126m, 4,000-tonne Yunlin, one of its largest vessels, the report
RSS