Complaining the judiciary was partisan, the People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus yesterday proposed to amend the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan (司法院組織法) to allow the State Public Prosecutor-General to assign an independent prosecutor or task force to handle major cases.
The amendment would require that candidates for the post of prosecutor-general be nominated by the president and approved by the Legislative Yuan. Appointees would be restricted to one five-year term.
The PFP caucus claimed that more than 500 prosecutors had signed a petition demanding that an independent prosecutorial system be established.
"The government has wrongly given priority to several cases. The important and urgent cases are not speedily dealt with, yet the minor cases are getting immediate attention," PFP Legislator Pang Chien-kuo (龐建國) said.
"We must ask whether prosecutors are coming under pressure -- so their neutrality is questionable. It is urgent that we establish an independent prosecutorial system," Pang said.
PFP Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (
"While [PFP Legislator] Chiu Yi's (邱毅) case was expedited, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was still only summoned as a witness in the National Security Bureau case. This shows that the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] administration is protecting its supporters and suppressing its opponents," Chou said.
PFP Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (
"The DPP government has been prosecuting pan-blue supporters, even film stars Brigitte Lin (
Liu said the PFP's feeling that political prosecutions were taking place emerged after PFP legislators Feng Ting-kuo (
Liu said that Feng and Lee Ching-hua visited Central Election Commission Chairman Huang Shih-cheng (
Liu said they had done so only to suggest the commission had made the announcement illegally and that they were entitled to make the suggestion at the commission's premises.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert