President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he was happy to see the legislature decide to review the draft bill of the judges’ act.
Ma said he wanted to thank former Judicial Yuan president Lai In-jaw (賴英照), who he said had made a tremendous amount of effort to help push the Speedy Criminal Trials Act (刑事妥速審判法) during his tenure.
The act passed the legislature in April.
Following the acquittal of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), on bribery charges on Friday last week — which irked many KMT supporters — the KMT--controlled legislature decided on Monday to push forward the review of the judges’ act.
‘NEVER EASY’
“I know the legislation process has caused a lot of controversy, but if we don’t take this step, we will encounter more difficulties in the future,” he said. “Judicial reform has never been easy.”
As the government turns its focus to the judges’ act, Ma said he was glad to see the legislature would soon begin preliminary review of the draft bill thanks in part to Lai’s dedication and hard work over the past two years and nine months in office.
Ma made the remarks after conferring medals on Lai and former Judicial Yuan vice president Hsieh Tsai-chuan (謝在全) to thank them for their service.
LONG WAY TO GO
Lai and Hsieh resigned in the midst of a corruption scandal involving three Taiwan High Court judges and one prosecutor suspected of taking bribes from a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker.
Saying that the country’s judicial reform began a long time ago and that there is still a long way to go, Ma added that he believed new Judicial Yuan President Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏) and his deputy Su Yeong-chin (蘇永欽) would continue the effort and exert themselves to reach the goal.
The legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee will begin the preliminary hearing tomorrow.
The Taipei District Court said in its verdict in the bribery scandal that it found no -evidence that Chen took NT$600 million (US$20 million) in exchange for promises not to block separate mergers initiated by Cathay -Financial Holdings and Yuanta Financial Holding.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Panel in response said it would appeal the verdict to the Taiwan High Court.
On Sunday at an election event in Tainan County, Ma, while -saying it was “inconvenient” for him to comment on Chen’s ongoing case, said that the judiciary must not isolate itself from the outside world or deviate from public expectations.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS