The Taipei District Court yesterday ordered former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) to pay NT$300,000 (US$9,500) in compensation to prosecutor Lin Hsiu-tao (林秀濤) and NT$620,000 to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) over illegal wiretaps and leaks of private information.
Lin, a former prosecutor at the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office, sued Huang, Special Investigation Division prosecutors Yang Jung-tsung (楊榮宗) and Cheng Shen-yuan (鄭深元), and Taipei District Court Judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春) over the wiretapping of her and her daughter’s telephones in 2013, demanding NT$2.21 million in compensation and an apology to be issued in a newspaper.
The court ruled that Huang should pay NT$300,000 for the wiretapping, but rejected charges against the other three defendants. The ruling can be appealed.
Photo: CNA
Lin and her husband were present at the hearing, but did not comment on the ruling.
In June 2013, Ker was found not guilty in an embezzlement case, for which Lin was the prosecutor in charge. Despite having the option to appeal the ruling with the Supreme Court, she did not.
The division suspected that she might have been bribed into forfeiting the appeal and Huang authorized an application for a wiretap of Lin, which Chou authorized in July 2013.
In September 2013, the agency accused former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) of lobbying then-minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) and then-head prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) — resulting in what was dubbed the “September strife” between Wang and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), both of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — to prevent Lin from appealing the ruling.
Details of Lin’s questioning by the agency in August 2013 were leaked by Huang to Ma on the same day.
Lin later filed charges of illegal wiretapping, improper questioning without an official investigation, leaking and distortion of the details of questioning and defamation against Huang, Yang, Chang and Chou.
Ker filed a civil suit against Huang and demanded NT$4 million in compensation over Huang’s leaking of private information, obtained via the wiretaps, in an ongoing investigation to Ma and publicizing that information at news conferences, which Ker claimed violated his privacy and damaged his reputation.
Later yesterday, the court also ordered Huang to pay NT$620,000 in compensation to Ker.
The court ruled that Huang had violated the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法), resulting in NT$500,000 in compensation for damaging Ker’s reputation and violating his privacy, with an additional NT$120,000 in damages for wiretapping Ker for 30 days.
In February last year, Huang was sentenced to 15 months in prison for leaking classified information.
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