Chen Ding-nan admonishes legislators

Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) yesterday said that prosecutors are not obligated to report to lawmakers and answer their questions and urged lawmakers not to "make the same mistake" again.

The Legislature's Judiciary Committee yesterday invited Chen and Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office Prosecutor-General Chu Nan (朱楠) to brief the legislature on the investigation into last year's Kaohsiung City Council speakership election and answer lawmakers' questions. Chu was absent without any excuses and his absence irritated lawmakers.

"Please be advised! The Interpretation Article 325 to the Constitution clearly states that prosecutors stay neutral while they are investigating a case. Interpretation Article 461 also said that prosecutors are not obligated to report to any government offices to answer any government officials' questions," Chen said. "As a result, I told Chu not to come today."

Chen said that only prosecutor generals or the state public prosecutor general has the authorization to order other prosecutors or ask them to brief a case. Other than this, prosecutors are not responsible to anybody.

"This is clearly stated in the law. Please respect this," he said.

The minister said that he hoped that it would not happen again.

"This is a mistake and I hope that the same mistake will not be repeated," he said.

Chen's remarks at the meeting yesterday morning stunned lawmakers.

PFP Legislator Chou His-wei (周錫瑋), who chaired yesterday's meeting, was very upset and yelled at Chen.

"Please be advised as well that you guys, including prosecutors, belong to the Cabinet. However, Cabinet members are all obligated to report to the Legislative Yuan and answer lawmakers' questions. That is also stated in the Constitution. How dare you? You told us not to make the same mistake again but I also want to tell you to respect the system and respect the Legislative Yuan," Chou said.

"Even though Chu is absent today, our questions for him still exist and we will keep inviting him to join our meetings in the near future," Chou said.

Chen did not respond to Chou's protest as the meeting continued. However, Chou had to dismiss the meeting a few minutes later because there was another quarrel between DPP Legislator Liu Chun-hsiung (劉俊雄) and TSU Legislator Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴) over last year's Kaohsiung City Council speakership election, as Su accused Liu of being party to the case.

Su was complaining to Chen that Kaohsiung prosecutors had overlooked a suspect in their investigation. He said that he possessed evidence to prove that a particular suspect was guilty and hoped that law enforcement officers would re-investigate it.

While Su was complaining, he implied that the "overlooked suspect" was Liu.