Campaigners yesterday announced plans to file lawsuits against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as his presidential immunity from prosecution is about to expire.
At a forum hosted by the Taiwan Forever Association, association director Steve Wang (王思為) said his group would join the Northern Taiwan Society and Taiwan Association of University Professors today calling for prosecutors to launch investigations into alleged power abuse and corruption by Ma, and calling for prosecutors to restrict Ma from leaving the nation until investigations are concluded.
“While there have been many important criminal cases that have occurred during Ma’s terms as president and Taipei mayor, criminal investigations have been put on hold because of his immunity from prosecution while president,” Wang said, adding that Ma’s immunity would end once his term ends on May 20.
The lawsuit applications focus on Ma’s role in the leaking of details in a controversial wiretapping investigation of former Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), unexplained increases in his personal wealth while in office and the allegation that he worked to the benefit of corporations during his time as Taipei mayor, Steve Wang said.
Lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), another Taiwan Forever Association director, said the Taiwan High Court’s final ruling on wiretapping charges against Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) stated that Ma had instigated Huang to leak information related to the case, as well as leaking information himself.
“Huang would not have leaked the information to [then-premier] Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), if Ma had not called him on Sept. 14, 2013, to ask him to leak it,” Huang said. “The weight of the materials in the ruling does not just point to a strong suspicion that Ma was implicated — the evidence is so clear that he has to be held responsible.”
Huang Shih-ming last year paid an NT$457,000 fine for violating the confidentiality of an ongoing investigation by revealing the results of the investigation to Ma, an action that raised questions over whether it opened the possibility for the abuse of presidential power.
Taipei Clean Government Committee member Jerry Cheng (鄭文龍) said there was also evidence that Ma had illegally profited the Farglory Group (遠雄集團) by agreeing to reduce the firm’s property royalties to zero for the Taipei Dome project at a secret meeting with company chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄).
Taiwan Forever Association secretary-general Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠) said that there were also questions about the increase of Ma’s reported assets while in office, adding that increases had outstripped his income when donations were taken into account.
Restricting Ma from leaving the nation while investigation is under way was reasonable given treatment of former Democratic Progressive Party president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who was detained during an investigation into corruption allegations after he left office, Kao said, adding that Ma matches the criteria used to detain Chen, including strong suspicion of criminal wrongdoing, substantial national influence and possibility of flight.
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,
The Republic of China (ROC) is celebrating its 114th Double Ten National Day today, featuring military parades and a variety of performances and speeches in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei. The Taiwan Taiko Association opened the celebrations with a 100-drummer performance, including young percussionists. As per tradition, an air force Mirage 2000 fighter jet flew over the Presidential Office as a part of the performance. The Honor Guards of the ROC and its marching band also heralded in a military parade. Students from Taichung's Shin Min High School then followed with a colorful performance using floral imagery to represent Taiwan's alternate name
COGNITIVE WARFARE: Chinese fishing boats transmitting fake identification signals are meant to test Taiwan’s responses to different kinds of perceived incursions, a report said Chinese vessels are transmitting fake signals in Taiwan’s waters as a form of cognitive warfare, testing Taipei’s responses to various types of incursions, a report by the Institute for the Study of War said on Friday. Several Chinese fishing vessels transmitted fake automatic identification system (AIS) signals in Taiwan’s waters last month, with one mimicking a Russian warship and another impersonating a Chinese law enforcement vessel, the report said. Citing data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, the report said that throughout August and last month, the Chinese fishing boat Minshiyu 06718 (閩獅漁06718) sailed through the Taiwan Strait while intermittently transmitting its own AIS
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