Waving off allegations that he is connected to the Tiendaomeng (天道盟) organized crime group, independent lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) yesterday spoke with the head of the country's judiciary system about justice.
Lo, who was elected as a convener of the legislature's judicial committee on Sept. 21, visited Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生), president of the Judicial Yuan, along with four other committee lawmakers yesterday.
The committee is scheduled to visit Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) today.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
In receiving the 12-member committee -- of which six are subject to criminal trials or investigations -- Weng said little, but hoped the lawmakers would support the passage of some bills the Judicial Yuan has proposed.
Seizing the opportunity, Lo complained about the media's frequent portrayal of him as a mafia leader, which he claims is unfair.
Lo, along with lawmakers Chou Wu-liu (
Lo also criticized his antagonist, lawmaker Tsai Ming-hsiang (蔡明憲), for the DPP legislator's vociferous protests against his being elected as convener of the judicial committee.
"This is the third time I have been elected as convener of the judicial committee. I can say that I've tried my best and did my job well. But there's always someone who cares little about their own job and just wants to climb by stepping on others," he said.
Tsai challenged and protested the vote as soon as Lo was announced as convener on Sept. 21.
"I cannot bear to see the President of the Judicial Yuan Weng Yueh-sheng and Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan taking a bow before [Lo] when they attend the committee," Tsai was quoted as saying at the time.
KMT lawmaker Liao Hwu-peng (廖福本), who is being investigated under suspicion of selling fake stocks of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), was also present yesterday.
Referring to the recent corruption scandal of Tainan District Court Judge Lee Tung-ying (李東穎), Liao urged the Judicial Yuan to carry out effective evaluations to ensure the integrity of judges.
The lawmakers also complained about the Judicial Yuan's release of legislators' names who are facing criminal charges or are being tried.
They said the released information had damaged the reputation of lawmakers and could have caused prejudice before the end of legal proceedings.
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