Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office (THPO) Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (侯寬仁) yesterday backed a former deputy justice minister’s allegations on Tuesday that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had turned to the nation’s administrative and investigative branches to pursue a personal vendetta against him for indicting the president on corruption charges in 2007.
“It is shocking to know that a president would resort to administrative means to punish the judicial personnel in charge of a legal case involving himself,” Hou said in response to media queries about former deputy minister of justice Lee Chin-yung’s (李進勇) accusations on Tuesday that Ma had interfered with the judicial system.
Lee presented a copy of a newspaper clipping showing an op-ed article written by Ma’s attorney, C.V. Chen (陳長文), in January 2010, calling on the Ministry of the Justice to seek compensation from Hou for what he described as negligence in handling the fraud case.
On the clipping was a note left by Ma that read: “Minister [of Justice] Wang Ching-feng, please read [the article] and clarify the matter.”
Lee alleged that Ma had held a grudge against Hou for indicting him on charges of misappropriating NT$11 million (US$333,000 at current exchange rates) from his special mayoral allowance during his eight-year tenure as Taipei mayor, even after he was found not guilty in April 2008. Hou said Ma took him to court in January 2008 on charges of dereliction of duty and forgery of investigation reports related to his corruption case, but the case was dismissed.
“After I was cleared of criminal liability, the president refused to let go of the matter … and instead used Chen’s article as a pretext for trying to hold me administratively accountable for another case,” Hou said.
As Hou’s alleged malpractice in handling the fraud case had gone beyond the 10-year statute of limitations for public functionary’s administrative negligence, given that defendants in the case were first indicted and detained in 1997, Ma later turned to the Control Yuan for assistance, Hou said.
Contrary to Ma’s expectations, the Control Yuan in December 2010 issued a correction order not to Hou, but to the ministry, for failing to discipline Hou sooner, as suggested by a Control Yuan investigation report in May 2002.
Hou said that then-justice minister Wang Ching-feng (王清峰), apparently acting on Ma’s orders, sent an official letter to the THPO in February 2010 asking the agency to “ascertain Hou’s [administrative] liability in ‘fraudulently misrepresenting’ witnesses’ statements” in Ma’s corruption case.
“It’s evident that the ministry jumped to conclusions before the THPO even had a chance to look into the matter,” Hou added.
Hou said the THPO originally decided not to discipline him.
Nevertheless, the ministry’s personnel review committee decided to mete out a heavier punishment and gave Hou a demerit instead in October that year, he said.
Asked whether the concerted efforts by Ma, Chen and Wang to find fault with him constituted a witch-hunt, Hou said: “It’s up for interpretation.”
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods