A group of lawyers yesterday formed an organization called the "Taiwan People's Court" (台灣人民法院) with the aim of highlighting "bias" in the nation's judicial system.
"The `Taiwan People's Court' is not a regular court. It is a concept aimed at demonstrating what a court should be and how it should function so that justice can be served," said William Chen (陳達成), a lawyer and spokesman for the group.
Chen said that most of the country's prosecutors and judges harbored pan-blue sentiment and "constantly ignored certain cases or produced unfair indictments or politically motivated verdicts."
As a result, the organization plans to try sensitive cases itself and broadcast them live on TV.
"It will be like a TV court show," Chen said.
Chen said the organization is attempting to raise funds from the public to buy airtime for its shows, which it hopes will be aired twice a month.
The organization has yet to decide which TV channel to approach to broadcast its TV court shows.
Chen said that the "Taiwan People's Court" has three members who are lawyers, and is hoping to recruit retired judges, prosecutors, lawyers and law professors to serve as judges and prosecutors.
Defendants would be welcome to appear in "court" and defend themselves, Chen added.
Unlike Taiwan's regular courts, the verdict in the "Taiwan People's Court" would be rendered by a jury, which would consist of volunteers, he said.
"When justice returns it will mark the end of the `Taiwan People's Court' because there will be no need for it anymore," Chen added.
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
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