A lower court decision that rejected a request by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) to prohibit former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) from leaving the nation once he steps down was on Tuesday revoked by the High Court.
Ker submitted a request to the Taipei District Court that Ma be forbidden from leaving the nation amid allegations of abuse of power and corruption on the grounds that Ma might flee after he stepped down as president yesterday following his maximum two terms in office.
However, the district court turned down Ker’s request, saying that the order was unnecessary. According to the court, Ma was accorded with immunity and there has been no summons issued to him, adding that as there has been no instance of his refusal or failure to appear in court, he was not a flight risk.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Unsatisfied with the ruling, Ker filed an interlocutory appeal to contest the ruling.
The High Court on Tuesday reversed the district court’s ruling and turned the case back to the district court for retrial.
The High Court said a sitting president has immunity from civil liability, but not criminal liability, for official acts committed as president.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Thursday said that Ma was involved in 24 cases and investigations into these cases have been either temporarily suspended due to his presidential immunity or are ongoing.
After Ma stepped down yesterday, investigations into these cases will be reopened, prosecutors said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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