Officials from the judiciary yesterday said that they are not going to take any legal action against independent Legislator Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴), even though Su failed to meet a Thursday deadline to disclose the identities of the two grand justices Su alleged had called him and tried to persuade him to veto the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例).
"We are sorry that Su refused to tell the truth. However, the grand justices will focus on reviewing applications for interpreting articles of the Constitution instead of arguing over such an issue or even filing a lawsuit over it," secretary-general of the Judicial Yuan, Fan Kuang-chun (范光群), said.
Fan made his remarks at a press conference yesterday afternoon because he, on behalf of the country's 15-member Council of Grand Justices, said on Tuesday that he would give Su three days to offer an explanation of the issue; however, Su did not make any comments.
The pan-green camp filed an application for a constitutional interpretation of the statute on Sept. 15.
On the application, Fan said that Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生) and Vice President Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模), who are both grand justices, have requested to remain absent during sessions discussing the application due to political reasons, and their requests were approved.
Regarding Su's allegations, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Tsung-yi (陳宗義) filed a slander suit against him on behalf of the grand justices on Sept. 22. Chen filed the suit at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office by reporting the case to prosecutors, who are expected to begin an investigation. Chen is not otherwise involved in the matter.
"Regarding Su's remarks, we [grand justices] decided to remain silent at this moment so prosecutors can carry out necessary investigations," Fan said. "They [prosecutors] have begun their work, so why don't we step aside and let them finish?"
Meanwhile, the president yesterday signed into law the investigation committee statute, according to Chen's deputy secretary, Cho Jung-tai (
The Constitution mandates that the president must promulgate a bill within 10 days after it has been forwarded from the legislature.
The statute would have become effective yesterday even if Chen had failed to sign it.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift