Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) violated the Constitution and abused his presidential authority when he leaked confidential information obtained from a wiretap in a case that was under judicial review, prosecutors and lawyers said yesterday as the Taiwan High Court began hearing an appeal of a lower court ruling in March that found Ma not guilty.
The Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said it had determined there were sufficient grounds to appeal the district court’s ruling in a libel case filed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
One of Ker’s attorneys, Tseng Chin-yuan (曾勁元), said it was wrong for Ma to decide that he had the constitutional right as president to provide consultations on a dispute involving two or more of the branches of government, leading to what Tseng called “catastrophic harm” to the Constitution and the nation.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Ma’s defense in the first trial used that interpretation to shield violations of the law, as Ma discussed with then-state prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) leaked confidential information relating to a judicial probe into an influence peddling case, Tseng said.
Attorneys representing the two sides argued on varying interpretations regarding Article 44 of the Constitution, which states: “In cases of disputes involving two or more Yuans other than those for which provisions are made in this Constitution, the president may call a meeting of the presidents of the Yuans concerned for consultation with a view to reaching a solution.”
Prosecutors yesterday said the not guilty verdict was the result of a wrongful interpretation of Article 44, which had contravened the normative understanding of the law, and they called on the Taiwan High Court judges to convict Ma.
Chen I-ming (陳一銘), another lawyer for Ker, said Ma had caused grave damage to the Constitution, as based on earlier legal interpretations, the president can only apply his authority for consulting on disputes between the Yuans when there is no other recourse to settle the dispute.
“However, it was not so for this case,” Chen said.
Ma was worried at the time about the Legislative Yuan and the Executive Yuan boycotting the state budget, or potentially using other administrative procedures to stall the legislative process, Chen said.
Ma spoke on his own behalf yesterday, saying he had been found not guilty through all the previous rulings on the case, and the Taiwan High Court should rule so again.
Ker accused Ma of aggravated libel after Ma criticized him during a news conference on Sept. 11, 2013, for alleged involvement in influence peddling,
Ma had labeled Ker’s alleged actions as “shameful.”
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,