The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a Taipei District Court ruling that found Taipei District Court Judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春) not guilty of negligence in making a witness’ name public.
Yesterday’s ruling is final.
The High Court’s ruling said that as prosecutors did not apply for the witness’ name to be withheld, Chou was under no obligation to do so.
In December last year, Chou and his secretary, Liu Lee-ying (劉麗英), were charged with malfeasance for alleged negligence in the disclosure of the name of a witness who was involved in an illegal drug production and transportation case heard by Chou, Taipei prosecutors said.
Chou and Liu were found to have failed to seal a classified document that had witnesses’ names in it. As a result, after a lawyer for the defendant in the case, surnamed Lu, read the document and told his client of the matter, the witness was beaten by the defendant, prosecutors said.
Chou was indicted a month after he became the target of some pan-blue political commentators when he cited insufficient evidence in the acquittal of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), on charges of laundering and taking bribes from bankers in exchange for manipulating bank mergers.
Last week, in a random drawing, the district court selected Chou and two other judges to co-hear a corruption case against former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who has been accused of embezzling state funds.
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