Minister of Justice Lo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) yesterday said that a task force set up to investigate the wiretapping controversy involving the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID) started operations yesterday and that she hoped a conclusion could be reached as soon as possible.
Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) said the task force has retrieved documents from the SID and the Taipei District Court on the wiretapping case. It will also summon officials from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau in charge of wiretapping work for interviews, he added.
Vice Minister of Justice Tsai Pi-yu (蔡碧玉), who was named the convener of the task force assembled the previous day, said she and the 10 other members — four justice officials and prosecutors and six legal experts — will discuss how the investigation should be conducted.
Tsai said that the investigation is administrative, rather than criminal, and will look into possible improper conduct by prosecutors.
Asked whether the task force would interview President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Lo said: “We might like to interview President Ma if it is really necessary, but because it is an administrative investigation, not a criminal one, we do not know whether Ma is willing to receive an interview.”
Concerns about the wiretapping conducted by the SID were raised after it was revealed on Sept. 28 that the legislature’s switchboard was monitored earlier this year.
The SID reported a case against former justice minister Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) and High Prosecutors’ Office head prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) to the Control Yuan and a Ministry of Justice review board for prosecutors respectively on Sept. 6 for allegedly issuing an instruction not to appeal a court case against Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
Tseng and Chen allegedly acted after receiving calls from Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), the SID said, citing evidence including telephone records and recordings gathered from eavesdropping on Ker’s telephone conversations.
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
RSS