Coming under increasing fire for promising to Swiss authorities that fugitive arms dealer Andrew Wang (
"I was actually cooperating with prosecutors over this issue. How can it be called interfering with justice?" the premier said, speaking on the legislature's floor yesterday after being questioned by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Shih-hsun (
Hsieh told Wang Shih-hsun that for further investigation purposes, the Supreme Court Prosecutors' Office suggested that he grant the Swiss authorities' request in return for more access to the investigation.
"So I gave them [Swiss authorities] my word over this issue while our prosecutors believed that it is OK," Hsieh said.
"In addition, our prosecutors also believe that Andrew Wang's alleged crimes should not incur the potential death penalty," the premier added.
"However, once he is indicted, we cannot guarantee that judges will not sentence him to death because judges work neutrally," he said.
The premier told lawmakers that according to his understanding, his promise to Swiss authorities also led them to reject Andrew Wang's appeals in the case.
"Actually, we have the advantage now," he added.
The premier also complained about recent criticism that his promise was a disgrace for Taiwan's justice system, because it is a sign that politicians can influence the judiciary.
Some criticized that the premier's promise also allowed Swiss authorities to interfere with Taiwan's judicial system.
"Having him [Andrew Wang] back for trial is what we are hoping for. But, blaming it on me or complaining about what I did will not make that happen at all," Hsieh said.
"I would urge everybody to look at the issue from a different point of view. Look at it from Taiwan's point of view, instead of Andrew Wang's point of view," he said.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Yuan yesterday said although the prosecutors promised that Wang would not face the death penalty, such a promise had no effect on a judge's decision in a future Andrew Wang trail.
"While prosecutors have some executive authority and can be easily affected by the executive branch, the judiciary is fully independent," said Liu Ling-chi (劉令祺), director of the Criminal Department of the Judicial Yuan at a press conference yesterday.
Liu added that prosecutors could suggest not recommending a death sentence for Andrew Wang in their indictment and that judges would value their recommendation, but such a recommendation had no legal bearing on a judge's decision.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching