After launching a high-profile search that has triggered tension between the administrative and legislative branches, prosecutors yesterday said they would subpoena KMT Legislator Liao Hwu-peng (廖福本) next week for further investigation into his alleged involvement in the selling of bogus Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp shares.
Prosecutors from the Tainan District Prosecutors' Office, who are in charge of the case, said Liao's assistant, identified only by his surname of Chao, would also be summoned.
Prosecutors said they were targeting Liao and Chao because the prosecution had seized a videotape showing Liao and Chao appearing at the company's customer services office, along with three other suspects and one person who appeared to be a victim of the fake stock certificate scam.
On Wednesday, prosecutors led investigators in a search of Liao's apartment, located in the Ta-an Complex, a government-owned residence for legislators.
But a search of Liao's office in the Legislative Yuan was blocked after Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), the legislature's speaker insisted that any search of the legislature's confines should not go ahead without his permission.
Legislators across party lines met on Thursday to express support for Wang.
Vice Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), however, yesterday released a statement stressing that the prosecutors' action was constitutional and legal. Although the ROC Constitution provides legislators with judicial immunity, it does not prohibit a search of the Legislative Yuan, Chang said.
According to the Constitution, legislators are immune from arrest and detention when the legislature is in session, unless the legislature approves the action or in cases of flagrante delicto.
Chang said the search was also consistent with the Criminal Code.
Wang yesterday reiterated that the matter was one concerning the safeguarding of parliamentary autonomy.
Wang noted that in some Western democratic countries, protection of the parliament's autonomy was explicitly granted in the Constitution.
Even in countries where such protection is not codified, judicial authorities must still show proper respect for parliament before such a search is undertaken, Wang said.
As the dispute continued, a former National Assembly deputy yesterday led a group of her supporters to the Tainan District Prosecutors' Office to express their support for the prosecutors' action.
Chien-Lin Hui-chun (錢林慧君), from the Taiwan Independence Party, said the prosecutors' action deserved encouragement because, she said, it was an open secret that some legislators were using the immunity conferred by their positions to engage in illegal activities.
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