The Ministry of Justice is carrying out a major personnel reshuffle that will see new heads at top posts, most notably with Deputy Minister of Justice Hsing Tai-chao (邢泰釗) being named to replace Tsai Pi-yu (蔡碧玉) as head of the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) announced the promotions and transfers on Tuesday, but the changes will officially be made at a ceremony on July 18.
Tsai Pi-yu is being transferred to the Judges Academy, where she will take over the post of principal from Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥), who has been named lead prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
However, some ministry officials have said that Tsai Ching-hsiang is likely to be appointed to lead the ministry’s Investigation Bureau in the near future.
New appointments to head the prosecutors’ offices in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林), New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taichung, Changhua, Chiayi, Pingtung, Yilan, Hualien, Taitung, Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang County were also announced.
The reshuffle was welcomed by many lawyers and others in the judicial field, who said it showed that Chiu was taking full command of the judiciary and the changes would serve as a warning for all the ministry’s personnel to shape up.
Huang Yueh-hung (黃越宏), publisher of the Journal on the Rule of Law (法治時報) — a biweekly publication focused on legal and judicial issues — said the changes clearly showed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration wants to reform the nation’s judiciary and judicial system.
The reshuffle could also mean that several cases involving former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九), alleging corruption and misuse of government funds, could be re-opened, observers said.
“Tsai Pi-yu is known in some circles as a Ma loyalist, since Ma appointed her to lead the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office,” Huang said yesterday in a television interview.
“To show her gratitude for her promotion to the post, she shelved a number of corruption cases against Ma, using legal maneuvers to block them from going forward, as well as dismissing other cases against Ma in recent years,” Huang said.
By choosing Hsing to head up the Taipei office, it is expected that work on Ma’s corruption cases will be kick-started within a few weeks, Huang said.
There are indications that work is under way to prepare for judicial proceedings against Ma, Huang added.
“There has been a clamor to remove Tsai Pi-yu for some time because she has a reputation for biased and selective prosecution, using judicial powers to probe allegations of corruption and illegal conduct against DPP-related people, but making little effort to investigate and bring charges in the many cases of alleged corruption and misdeeds by Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] officials,” Huang said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
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