The People First Party (PFP) yesterday proposed several law amendments aimed at stripping military police of their judicial police powers over civilians and of their right to search properties with a consent-to-search form in lieu of a search warrant.
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday morning, the PFP caucus called for the protection of the public’s judicial human rights, saying the issue is essential for the realization of transitional justice.
“The recent warrantless search by military police of a civilian residence has galvanized the debate on the nation’s judicial system, particularly about the military police’s judicial police powers, warrantless searches conducted based upon consent, and the propriety of the Judicial Police Dispatching Act (調度司法警察條例),” PFP caucus convener Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Lee was referring to the Taipei Military Police Station’s Feb. 19 search of the residence of a man, surnamed Wei (魏), believed to be in possession of government documents related to the White Terror era.
The station has justified its warrantless search by saying that Wei had signed a consent-to-search form, but Wei’s daughter said the consent was acquired under duress.
Lee said the military trial system was widely used during the authoritarian era and that despite Taiwan’s transition to democracy, military police have continued to hold judicial police powers that can be exercised on civilians at the behest of prosecutors.
To ensure the nation’s judicial system conforms with the principles of a constitutional democracy and human rights, Lee said that the PFP caucus plans to propose an amendment to Article 231-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) to limit the scope of the military police’s judicial police powers to active military personnel only.
Lee also called for the abolishment of Article 131-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allows a search to be made without a search warrant should the person being searched offer their voluntary consent.
“In practice, there are many cases in which people give consent to property searches without being given sufficient information or the search being completely voluntary. This constitute a violation of judicial human rights and runs counter to the spirit of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which was ratified in Taiwan in 2009,” Lee said.
The PFP caucus also plans to abrogate the Judicial Police Dispatching Act, which was ratified in 1945 before the adoption of the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution in 1947 and confers judicial police power on military police, Lee said.
The act is a product of the former military rule period and is incompatible with Taiwan’s democratic development, Lee added.
PFP deputy convener May Chin (高金素梅) said that in 2012, she and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) attempted to abolish the Judicial Police Dispatching Act, but the bid was stymied by the Ministry of Justice.
“I urge the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucuses to support the PFP’s efforts to consign outdated laws to history,” said Chin, who is an independent lawmaker.
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