Most of the video tapes of prosecutors questioning defendants in the corruption case against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) should be inadmissible as evidence, Ketagalan Foundation executive director Sue Wang (王時思) said yesterday.
The poor quality of the recordings and their apparent manipulation by prosecutors means they should not be accepted by the court, she said at a press conference.
Wang, speaking on behalf of Chen’s office, showed a clip of a recording in which voices were either muffled or muted. Wang said the footage also clearly proved that during the interrogation process, prosecutors used intimidation, threats and manipulation to get defendants to comply.
Wang said the office chose to disclose some of the footage yesterday because the court set yesterday as a deadline for Chen’s legal team to provide evidence in rebuttal.
Wang urged the court to extend the date because the office had only thoroughly reviewed less than 50 of the 300 DVDs authorities had given them.
One of the clips showed Special Investigation Panel (SIP) prosecutor Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮) repeatedly asking defendant Tsai Ming-tse (蔡銘哲) to “think carefully about your answers.”
At one point, Chu said to the defendant “I am sincere when I say I would put you down for attempted bribery, but I am afraid that I will have to make sure all the accounts are clearly settled. Therefore at the moment, I am basically giving you a warning.”
During the same session Chu told Tsai: “You should offer up [the information] that I am hinting at. You can say this [money] belongs to [former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍)] or you can say it belongs to you. There is a big difference in significance between the two.”
Wang also showed a clip of a female prosecutor questioning former Kaohsiung City mayor and vice premier Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭). The entire session was muted even though the images were clear.
“We are asking the court to restart the hearings without using these videos as evidence,” Wang said, panning the prosecutors for abusing their power during the interrogation process.
Wang said Chen planned to take legal action against some of the prosecutors for coercing witnesses.
Also yesterday, the SIP said Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥) the former first family’s physician, may be put on the wanted list if he does not return to Taiwan for questioning.
Huang was listed as a defendant a week ago for allegedly helping to launder money.
Responding to speculation that the prosecutors’ failure to arrest Huang was because Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) was friends with him, SIP spokesperson Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said: “The [SIP’s] handling of the case complies with legal procedures. There have been no delays.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY HUANG
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai