Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
Chen said the main reason for the reshuffle was the approaching retirement of the prosecutor general of the Keelung District Prosecutors' Office.
"The reason why the scale of the reshuffle is so large is that, while deciding who to fill the vacancies, we had to take into account the seniority of the prosecutors general," Chen said.
He said his move was not due to any pressure from above or from the Legislative Yuan.
Chen made the comment during a press conference yesterday afternoon. It marked his first public appearance following the ministry's Thursday evening announcement of the replacement of three High Court and 18 district court prosecutors general.
Coming without warning, however, and in many ways contravening usual practice, the reshuffle has prompted speculation that it is a move on Chen's part to rectify the practices of certain prosecutors' offices for conduct regarded by some as having embarrassed the judicial system. Some lower-ranking prosecutors have openly expressed outrage over the reshuffle.
Many in the media and in legal circles suspect that the cause of the reshuffle was the Tainan District prosecutors' search last week of National Chengkung University (
The prosecutor general of the Tainan District Prosecutors' Office, Lin Chao-yang (林朝陽), has been reassigned in the reshuffle to serve as Supreme Court prosecutor, a transfer conventionally regarded as a demotion.
Also regarded by the media and prosecutors as demotions were the replacement of the prosecutor general of the High Court Prosecutors' Office and head of the Black Gold Investigation Center, Lin Jie-der (林偕得), and prosecutor general of Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘). The two have also been assigned new posts as Supreme Court prosecutors.
Lin's "fault" has been speculated to have been his failure to submit a satisfactory report concerning the investigation of the scandal surrounding the Jin-Wen Institute of Technology (
The justice ministry, however, denied such speculation. Lin Chao-yang, Lin Jie-der and Huang said they accepted the new arrangements.
"The transfer of positions is made out of overall concern about the whole system and should not be attributed to any particular event," said Vice Minister of Justice Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定) yesterday morning.
The ministry's remarks sounded unconvincing to some, however.
Seven prosecutors from Taipei and four from Tainan's Special Investigation Forces have voiced objection to the reshuffle, which they said amounted to an interference in prosecutorial affairs and was a blow to their morale. Some said that they would withdraw from the forces in protest.
Chen, however, said the ministry would make efforts to communicate with the disenchanted prosecutors.
The new head of the High Court Prosecutors' Office and Black Gold Investigation Center will be Wu Kuo-ai (吳國愛), who now heads the Tainan branch of the High Court Prosecutors' Office.
Conventionally, a prosecutor general serves two years in a post before being transferred, but the previous reshuffle took place only 10 months ago.
Many, including both Lins and Huang, only assumed their posts then.
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