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DPP caucus urges MOJ to identify `Next' leak source

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday urged the Ministry of Justice to identify within three days the person who leaked a document issued by the Kaohsiung Bureau of the Taiwan High Court to the Bureau of Investigation to Next Magazine.

On Wednesday the magazine published a copy of what it said was an official document signed by former Kaohsiung prosecutor Lo Chien-hsun (羅建勛) that had been sent from the Black Gold Center of the Kaohsiung Bureau of the Taiwan High Court to the Bureau of Investigation on April 3.

The magazine said Lo believed former premier Frank Hseih (謝長廷) should be indicted on corruption charges because he allegedly received illegal donations from a Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) board member and others when he was mayor of Kaohsiung.

Hsieh became a target of investigations into the KRTC bidding scandal in March last year. The magazine said Lo -- who was in charge of investigations into the 2002 KRTC scandal -- believes Hsieh violated the Statute for the Punishment of Corruption (貪污治罪條例).

The Kaohsiung Bureau of the Taiwan High Court confirmed on Wednesday that the document was genuine, but said it was sent by Lo himself and that the "terminology" in the document was "flawed."

DPP legislative whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) told a press conference yesterday that Justice Minister Morley Shih (施茂林) and Director-General of the bureau Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂) should step down should the ministry fail to discover who disclosed the document and punish the personnel involved in the leak.

"The person who leaked the document to the magazine not only violated the principle of keeping criminal investigations confidential but also sabotaged the DPP's internal harmony and contributed to a crisis of division," he said, referring to the suspicion raised by Hsieh's camp that this might be a move from one or more of the other three DPP presidential contenders to harm Hsieh's chance in the primary.

The ministry yesterday denied any "conspiracy" over the leak.

"I have ordered my ministry's officials to probe why a copy of a prosecutorial document was leaked to the magazine, and the result of the investigation will be published tomorrow [today]," Shih told a legislative judicial committee meeting yesterday when questioned by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) over the event.
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