The Taipei District Court yesterday handed former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) a victory in his defamation lawsuit against veteran media personality Wu Tzu-chia (吳子嘉), vice chairman of my-formosa.com (美麗島電子報), who alleged that Ma and his campaign team received a NT$1 billion (US$30.98 million) off-the-books donation from Ting Hsin International Group.
Saying Wu failed to provide evidence to support his allegations, the court ordered him to pay Ma NT$1.8 million in damages and to issue a public apology statement in the nation’s major newspapers.
It was the first ruling on the case, and the decision can be appealed.
The compensation was far lower than the NT$3 million in punitive damages asked.
The case stems from a news article that Wu wrote for the online media outlet in November 2014, in which he wrote that Ting Hsin group’s Wei brothers had given NT$10 billion in off-the books political donations to Ma and his campaign team in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
“The Wei brothers made a donation of about NT$10 billion to help finance Ma’s campaign,” Wu wrote, adding that with the “donation,” Ma, as the president, would act as the “guardian and protector” of Ting Hsin’s business interests.
Wu wrote the story during the rising tide of public anger and resentment against the conglomerate, in the aftermath of the tainted cooking oil scandals of 2013 and 2014 involving Ting Hsin subsidiaries.
Ma and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded an apology and retraction of the allegations, and sued Wu for defamation when he refused.
The KMT later withdrew from the litigation, since Wu did not specifically refer to the party receiving illicit donations, but Ma remained a plaintiff in the case.
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