With the campaign camps of presidential hopefuls Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) still exchanging fire over the leak to media of a prosecutorial document, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) yesterday sought to end the bickering by saying the leak was a conspiracy orchestrated by people within the prosecutorial system.
Wang told reporters yesterday morning that the leak was a scheme cooked up by Kaohsiung Prosecutor Lo Chien-hsun (
Wang said he intended to call Su and Hsieh on the eve of the party's primary in a bid to stop them from continuously wrangling over the leak, but "it was too late."
The DPP party member vote took place yesterday.
Wang was referring to heated exchanges between Su and Hsieh's camps over a story reported by the Chinese-language Next Magazine.
On Wednesday, the magazine published a copy of what it said was an official document signed by Lo, which had been sent from the Kaohsiung bureau of the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office to the Investigation Bureau on April 3.
The magazine said that Lo believed Hsieh should be indicted on corruption charges on suspicion of accepting illegal donations from a Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) board member and others during his term as mayor of Kaohsiung.
Hsieh's campaign initially criticized the Cabinet for the ministry's failure to discover the identity of the source of the leak before the primary.
Su struck back at a separate event on Saturday by saying he had believed in Hsieh's innocence from the very beginning, but Hsieh's camp had still attacked and smeared him by sending text messages to the media accusing the Cabinet of being the mastermind behind the leak.
The two camps took the infighting further by running advertisements on the front pages of major Chinese-language newspapers yesterday, with Su's camp accusing Hsieh of trying to shift the public's focus from the KRTC bidding scandal by linking Su to the leak.
Wang said a source had told him that the source of the document leak was the same group of people who previously disclosed information to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (
The caucus whip, however, did not present evidence to prove his allegation but said he would disclose details in a press conference today.
In response, Lo issued a statement yesterday saying the prosecutorial document had been leaked by "Taipei's people on purpose," blasting them for the leak.
"I am a person without any political agenda and I had no motivation to leak the investigation [document] to the media," he said in the statement. "I must rebut Legislator Wang's accusation that I am the mastermind behind this incident and that I conspired with individuals from the Ministry of Justices' Investigation Bureau to do it."
Lo appealed to Next Magazine to reveal its source.
The prosecutor stressed that he was willing to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
RSS