Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday fought back after reports that Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) plans to question Taipei District Court Judge Tang Yue (唐玥) over the High Court’s decision to acquit Ma in July.
While stumping for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections in Hsinchu County yesterday, Ma berated Chen for the planned questioning of Tang.
Chen would be seriously interfering with the justice system, Ma said.
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times
Ma was acquitted of charges that he leaked classified information and breached telecommunications security law when dealing with wiretaps of two top lawmakers in 2013.
Chen has accused judges involved in the case of abusing the principle of judicial discretion and of passing judgement based on their political stance and personal bias.
Then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), who passed the information on to Ma, was found guilty, but did not have to serve a 15-month sentence and paid a fine instead, Chen said on Tuesday.
Chen has made statements about alleged misconduct, failures and corruption in the justice system, and the perception that judges favor wealthy people who hold political power.
“We can see from many cases … that Taiwan’s judiciary is not the last line of defense when it comes to upholding justice for the people. It is the preserve of conservative forces, the final stronghold of the one party-state’s political ideology,” Chen said, referring to the KMT.
Chen said that if there is no power authorized to monitor the justice system, then “judicial independence” is in reality “judicial dictatorship.”
The Judges’ Association of the Republic of China, as well as other organizations for judges and judiciary officials, have launched a petition protesting Chen’s remarks and released a statement saying that they would protect judicial independence from tampering by Chen and other Control Yuan members.
Chen served as a top aide to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), and was deputy Taipei mayor and Democratic Progressive Party secretary-general.
He has been highly critical of the justice system, as it found Chen Shui-bian guilty of corruption, while Ma has been consistently cleared of corruption charges.
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