Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) yesterday fought back against allegations that the Special Investigation Division (SID) he leads served as President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) executioner in an influence peddling case involving several prominent politicians.
The label of “political hatchet man” was “absolutely unacceptable” and one to which “I strongly object,” Huang said.
The SID “deserved applause” for its discovery of “the biggest influence-peddling scandal in [the nation’s] judicial history,” he said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“If I had passed over the information obtained by wiretapping on June 28 and June 29, questions would have been raised that we [SID] had tried to cover up [the alleged irregularities] and that I had neglected my duty,” he said.
The wiretaps on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming’s (柯建銘) telephone on those two days led the SID to allege that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), in response to a request from Ker, lobbied in regards to a legal case against Ker.
The SID alleged that Wang asked then-minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) and Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office Head Prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) to urge a prosecutor not to appeal Ker’s acquittal in an embezzlement case stemming from 1997 to the Supreme Court. Ker was indicted in 2008.
At the press conference, Huang took 25 minutes to deliver an eight-point statement refuting criticisms against the SID’s probe, calling the case “the biggest influence-peddling scandal in judicial history” five times.
It is “regrettable” that Tseng and Chen both had tried to divert attention away from the influence-peddling allegation by saying that it was the result of “[my] personal animosity [against Tseng],” Huang said.
“I truly felt that the way they had behaved made them look like politicians who always term whatever charges are brought against them as ‘political persecutions’ to attack the credibility of the judiciary,” he said.
Prosecutors have presented “strong evidence” to prove that Tseng and Chen have both meddled in the case, Huang said, dismissing the criticism that there was no evidence the two men were involved in the decision by Lin Shiow-tao (林秀濤), the prosecutor in charge of Ker’s case, not to appeal the not-guilty verdict.
“Direct evidence was not necessarily needed,” Huang said.
Huang refuted the DPP’s claim that the wiretapping of Ker’s phone was conducted without due process, saying the SID had sought permission in advance from the Taipei District Court.
The SID did not tap Wang’s phones, Huang said.
Huang said he had reported the case to Ma, at the president’s residence, on Aug. 31, six days before the SID announcement on Friday last week, because the alleged involvement of the legislative speaker and the minister of justice minister would have massive ramifications.
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Huang’s body was found just outside the bathroom and showed no signs of a struggle, and no alcohol or drugs were found Singer and actor Alien Huang (黃鴻升) was found dead at his home in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) yesterday. He was 36. Huang was also known by the nickname Xiao Gui (“little ghost”). His body was found when his father went to check on him after being unable to reach him by telephone, and called emergency services to the house at 11am, the Taipei City Police Department said. Huang’s body, which was discovered just outside the bathroom, showed no signs of a physical struggle, and he appeared to have been dead for some time, police said, adding that no drugs or alcohol were
CONFIRMED IN PHILIPPINES: The CECC would conduct contact tracing for the migrant workers to determine if they had come into contact with elderly people or children Six Filipinos tested positive for COVID-19 upon returning home from Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday as it reported a case of imported COVID-19 infection, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Taiwan to 500. Philippine authorities reported four of the cases through the National IHR Focal Point, while the other two were reported by the company that they had worked for in Taiwan. The six — five women and one man — are aged from their 20s to 40s, and worked as in-home care workers, domestic workers, factory workers and sailors in Taiwan, said Minister of Health and
TIME FOR CHANGE: Most of those at a public hearing organized by the DPP’s Chung Chia-pin also agreed that the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan should be abolished Taiwan needs a new constitution, as the current one was adopted in Nanjing in 1946, when the Republic of China (ROC) represented all of China, while the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan should be abolished, legal experts and academics said yesterday during a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Chang Kun-sheng (張錕盛), a law professor and secretary-general of the Taiwan Administrative Law Association, said that it is time to draft a new constitution. The ROC Constitution was adopted during a National Constituent Assembly meeting in Nanjing shortly after World War II and before the Chinese Civil War had fully erupted,
The COVID-19 pandemic might not have originated from a seafood market in Wuhan, China, National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. While many countries are experiencing second waves of COVID-19 infections, many are also lifting lockdowns to revive their economies, allowing travelers to cross national borders, Chen said. Academics have been questioning whether genetic mutations in the novel coronavirus in different countries have made it more infectious, he added. Academics from different backgrounds have conducted phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences, he said, adding that the studies can help scientists understand how the virus spread among
RSS