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.”
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