Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday urged the government to reopen the investigation into the 319 shooting incident.
On the fifth anniversary of the shooting yesterday, Chen was quoted by his office spokesman Liu Dao (劉導) as saying that he hoped Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰), former convener of a 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee, would reopen the case.
“The KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] is now in power. [Chen] is hoping that Minister Wang can lead the Special Investigation Panel [SIP] to probe the case and prove his innocence,” Liu said yesterday outside the Taipei District Court.
The 319 shooting incident refers to an alleged assassination attempt against Chen and Lu in Tainan on March 19, 2004, one day before the presidential election.
A bullet grazed Chen’s stomach and left a 13cm wound, while another bullet hit Lu in the knee. The authorities later identified the shooter as Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄), who was found dead 10 days after the incident. The pan-blue camp at the time called the incident an election scheme and asked Wang to lead the investigation.
The case was closed by the Tainan Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2005.
Lu yesterday echoed Chen’s call on the government to reopen the case and defended the former president.
“I was with him the whole day when the shooting happened and I swear on my life that Chen Shui-bian did not have the time to fabricate the shooting,” Lu told a press conference at her office.
Liu criticized the SIP for focusing its efforts on investigating corruption scandals involving the former president and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), and called on prosecutors to put more energy into the shooting investigation.
“Prosecutor Yueh Fang-ju [越方如] only asked once about the shooting. He never asked again,” Lu said. “The SIP has become the ‘Bian-Jen’ [扁珍] panel and ignores other cases.”
Lu also challenged the conclusion reached by the committee, which said that only one gunman was involved in the shooting.
The KMT passed a resolution during its Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday asking the Ministry of Justice to put more effort into reopening the investigation of the incident.
KMT spokesman Lee Chien-rong (李建榮) said yesterday that KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) supported reopening the case.
KMT caucus deputy secretary-general John Wu (吳志揚) told a separate press conference yesterday that the KMT was responsible for establishing the truth on the incident now that it was in power.
“Minister of Justice Wang used to serve as convener of the [319 Shooting] Truth Investigation Special Committee. She now has greater power in seeking justice and establishing the truth,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS