Judicial Yuan presidential nominee Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定) yesterday denied accusations that he was a prosecutor in charge of multiple controversial cases during the White Terror era, saying that his involvement was limited to “assisting with those investigations.”
Hsieh was accused by 18 judicial reform groups led by the Alliance for Civic Oversight of Supreme Court Justice Nominees and the Judicial Reform Foundation of being the lead prosecutor in multiple White Terror era legal cases that some consider to epitomize human rights violations by the then-authoritarian administration.
The cases included the Jhongli Incident, the Kaohsiung Incident and the murders of relatives of democracy activist Lin I-hsiung (林義雄).
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The Jhongli Incident refers to a mass demonstration in 1977 against ballot-rigging by the government in a county commissioner election, and the Kaohsiung Incident, or the Formosa Magazine Incident, refers to a clash between security forces and democracy activists in 1979.
Lin, an organizer of the Kaohsiung protest and later a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman, was in 1980 convicted of treason for his role in the clash.
That same year, his mother and twin daughters were stabbed to death in mysterious circumstances. Although the then-government was widely believed to be responsible for the murders, they remain unsolved.
Earlier yesterday, the groups alleged that Hsieh had wilfully concealed his role in those cases in the resume he submitted to the legislature and demanded that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) rescind the nomination, or for the legislature to refuse to vote for his confirmation if she was unable or unwilling to do so.
Alliance convenor Chiu Hei-yuan (瞿海源) said that the nomination of Hsieh by Tsai was procedurally “the most slap-dash job we have seen since the founding of our organization in 2003,” and that Tsai had “bypassed” the evaluation committee for the nomination.
The scheduled confirmation in an extempore legislative session would make “objective evaluation of the nominee impossible,” Chiu said.
In a statement issued on the same day, Hsieh said that the prosecutor assigned to the Jhongli Incident with the surname Liu (劉) had a schedule conflict and that Hsieh was ordered to replace Liu as the acting prosecutor.
Hsieh said that during the Kaohsiung Incident, he was ordered to assist the assigned prosecutor, surnamed Sun (孫), by interrogating “several” defendants, on account of “the sheer number of accused.”
In the case of the murder of Lin’s daughters and mother, Hsieh said that he was under orders by the then-head prosecutor of the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office to assist Sun by investigating Bruce Jacobs, a US professor under suspicion at the time, whom he eventually cleared as a suspect.
“I am known for handling all of my cases according to an attorney’s conscience all of my career,” he said.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) yesterday issued a statement saying that Tsai was aware of Hsieh’s role in those cases, adding that during the previous DPP administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), former minister of justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) named Hsieh as a deputy minister and Chen Shui-bian nominated him as the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office secretary-general.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
Democratic Progressive Party caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu, front, grabs the pennant in a dragon boat race hosted by Qu Yuan Temple in the Shuanghsi River in Taipei’s Beitou District yesterday.
RSS