Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) yesterday said at the legislature that she “does not really understand” what violation that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is being accused of when asked about Ma being sued by the Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance, which accuses him of committing “offenses against external security of the state,” or treason.
The alliance on Thursday last week, two days after the Presidential Office made public its plan for Ma to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore, accused the president of the offenses of “making secret agreement with a foreign government without authorization” and of “betraying the government’s trust and causing injury to the Republic of China.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) asked Luo whether Ma’s meeting with Xi “is a suspected offense against the security of the state.”
Photo: Chen Chi-chu, Taipei Times
The minister said she had little understanding of why the complainants believe the meeting broke the law, but “prosecutors will process the case according to the law if there are charges brought to the prosecuting institutions.”
Lu said that former National Security Council deputy secretary-general Parris Chang (張旭成) and former deputy minister of national defense Ko Cheng-heng (柯承亨), both advisers to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), had once said that the DPP would give up the nation’s claims in the South China Sea if elected, and asked Luo whether this counts as an offense against the external security of the state.
Luo responded that prosecutors would likewise investigate if they received the necessary documents.
The KMT lawmaker also accused DPP Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) of leaking classified information that the US is to sell two Perry-class frigates and other military items to Taiwan.
Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said that information is classified if it is not yet time for the government to reveal it.
Asked by Lu whether Wu is suspected of committing offenses against external security and of “disclosing or prying information of a secret nature concerning the defense of the Republic of China,” Luo said it depends on what exactly Wu has done and said.
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