Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators have moved to amend the Organic Act for Courts (法院組織法) and proposed a draft bill that aims to abolish the controversial Special Investigation Division (SID).
The division was established in April 2007 under Clause 1, Article 63 of the act with the intent of investigating allegations of corruption involving presidents, vice presidents, the presidents of the five government branches and high-ranking military officials.
However, as SID prosecutors are appointed directly by the head prosecutor, who is in turn directly appointed by the president, there have been constant questions by pundits and legal experts as to whether the SID could remain neutral if the president were investigated for corruption.
In 2008, following former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) successful first bid for office, then-head prosecutor Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said at a news conference that he would resign if he did not indict former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), a statement widely panned by legal experts as contravening the presumption of innocence.
Legal experts also pointed to the case of former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), who was found guilty of leaking confidential information about an ongoing investigation during Ma’s “September strife” with then-legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) in 2013, an incident widely seen by pundits and legal experts as the SID violating judicial neutrality.
In August and September 2013, Huang allegedly informed Ma that SID prosecutors had overheard conversations implicating Wang in an attempt to influence another ongoing investigation.
“No democratic nation would have an organization like the SID,” lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said, pointing to the US, Germany, Japan and South Korea as examples.
Huang Di-ying said that South Korea had abolished the “grand central investigation team” in 2013, adding that democratic nations are aware how centralized prosecution systems make it easier for political figures to interfere with the judicial system.
Huang Di-yingsaid that the SID avoided investigating cases involving the elite members of the party-state — referring primarily to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — and had double standards, pointing to the difference in its reception of allegations involving Ma and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).
Huang Di-ying said the SID had rejected his lawsuit, citing that Ma’s alleged involvement in the Taipei Dome project occurred when he was Taipei mayor, not president.
“However, the SID had chosen to pursue in 2007 an investigation of former Kaohsiung mayor Hsieh [after accusations by then-KMT legislators including Chiu Yi (邱毅) of corruption in the construction of the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit System],” he added.
Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said that abolishing the SID would be the first step toward reforming Taiwan’s judicial system, adding that the SID’s problem is that it has no oversight due to its affiliation with the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
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