The Taiwan High Court yesterday acquitted former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of charges that he leaked classified information and breached telecommunications security law stemming from wiretaps conducted in 2013 of leading political figures in the Legislative Yuan.
The Taipei District Court found Ma not guilty in the first ruling in 2017. Last year, the High Court found Ma guilty and handed down a four-month prison sentence. In January, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial and returned the case to the High Court, resulting in yesterday’s ruling, which is final.
Prosecutors focused on Ma’s interactions with then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), who led the now-defunct Special Investigation Division, and his acquiring of wiretap transcripts, which they said were contraventions of the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法), the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and the Criminal Code.
Photo: CNA
The High Court yesterday said that it was Huang who requested a meeting with Ma and gave him the wiretap transcripts, adding that Ma did not use his authority as president to engage in illegal action.
The presiding judge ruled that Ma did not break the law and was not an accomplice to illegal actions by Huang, the only person to have been found guilty in the case, for which he received a 15-month sentence that can be commuted to a fine.
“The evidence prosecutors presented was insufficient to convict the defendant of breaking the law as charged. Therefore, the judges adhered to the principle of innocent until proven guilty,” High Court spokeswoman Lien Yu-chun (連育群) said.
Activities relating to the case began in August 2013, when Huang directed the division to wiretap Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), then-legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and other lawmakers and political figures, citing allegations of improper lobbying by Ker in a breach of trust case.
Investigators found that Ma had talked about the matter with Huang, who later met with Ma three times to provide wiretap transcripts, which Ma then discussed with then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and then-Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強).
The secret investigation and wiretapping sparked a political storm that rocked the KMT and was later dubbed the “September strife.”
Ma’s office yesterday issued a statement saying that he was gratified by the acquittal, because the result was not just about Ma’s innocence on all counts, “but it also helps establish the administrative authority of a sitting president under the provisions of the Constitution.”
“It will enable the nation’s leader to govern with presidential authority and abide by the law as enshrined in the Constitution,” the statement said.
However, Ma is not completely out of legal jeopardy, as he was last year indicted by Taipei prosecutors over an alleged breach of trust and financial irregularities in the sale of KMT property to three media outlets in 2005 and 2006.
That trial is still pending at the Taipei District Court, but Ma has been summoned for questioning and cross-examination.
Prosecutors have said that Ma forced through the sales at below market prices to benefit certain individuals in breach of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法), resulting in financial losses of about NT$7.2 billion (US$231.7 million at the current exchange rate).
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS