Prosecutor-general nominee Yen Ta-ho (顏大和) vowed yesterday in the Legislative Yuan not to leak details of any ongoing investigations to the president if his nomination is approved.
Yen’s nomination to be the successor to former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) was jointly reviewed yesterday by the Internal Administration Committee and the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
Huang stepped down earlier this month after being embroiled in controversy over his involvement in the so-called “September strife” between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
The Taipei District Court last month found him guilty of leaking confidential information to Ma.
Ma has nominated Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Head Prosecutor Yen to replace Huang.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) said at the review meeting that “Huang became the first prosecutor-general convicted of briefing the president on an ongoing investigation. I hope you insist on neutrality in the office by not revealing any legal cases to Ma, particularly during the lead-up to the seven-in-one elections in November. I am afraid National Security Council [NSC] Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) might ask you to brief his council on information related to elections.”
“I really hope you insist on political neutrality and judicial independence if your nomination is approved,” Wu said.
“I promise not to brief the president on any investigations, not only President Ma, but also the next president to be elected in 2016,” Yen said.
“If there is a law authorizing me to attend an NSC meeting, I would go. If not, I would never go,” Yen said.
DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) asked Yen: “What is your position on the Sunflower movement students facing criminal charges?”
Yen replied that there are many outstanding prosecutors in the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
“I believe the district prosecutors’ office will handle the cases appropriately,” Yen said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching