After refusing attend a court hearing on Wednesday, DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lee Chin-yung (
Lee told a press conference yesterday that his absence on Wednesday was to protest prosecutors allowing politics to interfere with judicial proceedings.
Lee also filed a complaint with the Control Yuan yesterday accusing Hualien's chief prosecutor, Yang Ta-chih (
PHOTO: CNA
"Yang had violated the principle of withholding investigation information before the lawsuit was established when he revealed information to the media about an alleged vote-buying practice by DPP supporters," Lee said.
"He also contacted reporters about a press conference to attack Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
A lawyer himself, Lee explained his reason for rejecting the interrogation request.
"I wanted to reveal how some prosecutors in Hualien had betrayed the principle of judicial impartiality in handling their cases. The prosecutors should have weighed properly the necessity to use the investigation authority instead of bringing charges against me in such a hasty manner," Lee said.
The Hualien Prosecutors' Office charged Lee because of a DPP campaign promise to give a monthly service allowance of NT$5,000 to Hualien Aboriginal chieftains if the party's candidate, You Ying-lung (游盈隆), was elected as county commissioner.
Lee said making campaign promises is a legal practice in any democratic society, which guarantees candidates can propose beneficial policies to their supporters.
Lee added that President Chen Shui-bian (
"How come these former candidates have never faced similar prosecution?" he asked.
Lee said the proposed service allowance increase for Aboriginal chieftains is a designated policy studied by the Executive Yuan's Council of Indigenous Peoples (
"Chieftains are esteemed in Aboriginal society. They also have a responsibility to help with the tribal public affairs. Their role is similar to that of a borough chief. If the allowance increase for borough chiefs in Han society can be established, why can this not be applied to Aboriginal society," Lee said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,