The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID) yesterday announced it has closed its investigation into a complaint filed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for allegedly directing the intelligence apparatus to spy on former DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during the presidential campaign.
The SID said there was no solid evidence showing that Ma had ordered intelligence agencies to monitor Tsai during the campaign.
The Chinese-language Next Magazine reported on Dec. 28 that National Security Council Secretary-General Hu Wei-jen (胡為真) had asked the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau (MJIB) to deploy 28 agents nationwide to monitor Tsai.
The report said Hu submitted information to Ma detailing the DPP chairperson’s schedule, meetings and contacts, as well as information about the possible number of votes at stake.
The DPP lawmakers said Hu, MJIB Director Chang Ji-ping (張濟平) and the 28 agents had broken six laws, including the Presidential and Vice Pesidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法) and the Public Servants’ Administrative Neutrality Act (公務人員行政中立法).
The lawmakers said Ma was the mastermind behind the monitoring and they filed a complaint against him, while saying that the other officials were also guilty of corruption.
The SID said the magazine report did not say that Ma “ordered,” “directed” or “requested” the National Security Council or the MJIB collect information on Tsai, adding that the magazine had simply said Ma might have “convinced” the two bureaus to commit acts that violated regulations.
The SID cited Ma’s strong denial of the allegations during a public event in which he said: “I have never asked the national security bureaus to monitor the opposition parties. This kind of thing I have never done. I never saw any MJIB vote prediction report and I have never asked them to offer this kind of report to me.”
The SID also cited remarks by Hu, who said the National Security Bureau “could not involve itself in, or interfere with any actions related to the elections.”
The SID said it was responsible for investigating charges relating to the president, the vice president, ministers and vice ministers, and it had sent files of cases involving intelligence officials to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation.
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