Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday again refused to answer questions at his trial at Taipei District Court.
Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) scheduled yesterday’s session to have Chen examine case files. All of Tsai’s questions to the former president regarding whether he had any comments about the files went unanswered.
As usual, the former president kept silent and did not make any gestures to protest what he has called an unfair judicial system.
PHOTO: CNA
Chen has relinquished his right to call witnesses or speak in his defense, saying he did not need to do so because he was innocent.
Prosecutors and Chen’s court-appointed attorney, Tseng Te-rong (曾德榮), also said little yesterday, telling the court they would save their comments until a later date for closing arguments.
Tsai set Tuesday as the date for the closing arguments.
Outside the courthouse, more than 100 of the former president’s supporters from groups including the Southern Taiwan Society and the Northern Taiwan Society gathered to demonstrate against his continued detention.
Holding up signs that read “Unjust judiciary” and “Release A-bian now,” the protesters called on the Grand Council of Justices to declare the switching of judges in Chen’s case unconstitutional.
Huang Yung-tien (黃永田), who was among the hundreds of protestors who gathered on July 10 for a detention hearing, returned yesterday, protesting with his hands in handcuffs.
Several protesters shouted “Tsai Shou-hsun, go to hell” and “A-bian is innocent.”
In January, Chen’s office asked the council to rule on the legitimacy of his pre-trial detention and the switching of judges from Chou Chan-chun (周占春) to Tsai.
While Chou presided over Chen’s case, he twice ruled against detaining Chen. Tsai has repeatedly ruled to detain him.
In December last year, a panel of judges ordered that Chou be replaced by Tsai, who would preside over all of Chen’s cases, which would be merged.
The switch was controversial, with some claiming it was and politically motivated. Some legal experts said the decision to merge the trials had violated judicial procedures.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS