A Taiwan High Court judge yesterday approved a request by lawyers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma was found not guilty of corruption by the Taipei District Court in his first trial in August, but prosecutors have appealed the verdict with the Taiwan High Court.
At the court hearing yesterday, Ma's attorney, Song Yao-ming (宋耀明), told the court that the transcript of Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen's (侯寬仁) questioning of Chuang Mei-chen (莊美珍), an accountant with the Taipei City Government's Secretariat, was not credible and asked the court to examine Hou's transcript.
time-consuming
Prosecutors said that examining the transcript in court would be time-consuming and asked that the court rule to replace Hou's transcript with that by Ma's lawyer.
The presiding judge accepted the proposal.
Yesterday was not the first time that Ma's lawyers had questioned Hou's transcript of witnesses' statements.
During Ma's first trial, the Taipei District Court ruled that the transcript of Hou's questioning of Taipei City treasurer Wu Li-ju (
The court said there were serious discrepancies between an audio recording of the testimony and Hou's transcript.
Furthermore, the court said Hou had asked hypothetical questions and the testimony did not have the authority of evidence. Although Hou recorded answers of "yes" and "uh" to his questions as affirmative responses, this was not necessarily the case, the court said.
out of context
The judges said Hou had taken statements out of context, and that they had never before seen such discrepancies in evidence.
Ma was indicted on Feb. 13 for allegedly embezzling NT$11 million (US$333,000) from his special mayoral allowance during his eight years in office.
Prosecutors said that between December 1998 and July last year, Ma wired half of his monthly special allowance, or NT$170,000, directly into a personal account. In this way, they said Ma accumulated NT$11,176,227 in accounts belonging to himself and his wife.
During the trials Ma admitted he had taken half of his monthly special allowance for personal use, but said he believed that government officials' special allowances should be treated as income, not as public funds.
The Taiwan High Court said yesterday it expects Ma's second trial to wrap up by the end of this month and a verdict would be announced next month.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘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
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS