Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday criticized the Taipei District Court’s decision to change its presiding judge in cases concerning former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
In a meeting held among the court’s presiding judges late on Thursday night, a vote decided that Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) would take over the Chen-related case from Presiding Judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春) because Tsai had previously handled cases concerning Chen.
POLITICAL INTERVENTION
Panning the move as “political intervention,” DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday said “the judiciary is doomed.”
DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said that in an effort to avoid human manipulation, the courts had in recent years had to resort to using a computerized system designed to randomly select presiding judges.
“By deciding who shall be the presiding judge by a vote, we are now going backward and future judiciary trials will be filled with political elements,” he said.
PERTURBED
At a separate setting, Chen’s defense attorney Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) yesterday said Chen was perturbed by the selection of Tsai as the presiding judge in his case.
“We do not care for how SIP [the Special Investigation Panel] is conducting itself. How can the court change the judges after the lots have already been openly cast? [By doing so,] the public confidence in the system will greatly decrease,” said Cheng, slamming the SIP for what he said was abuse of its authority.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), on the other hand, questioned whether Tsai had the wherewithal to rule in Chen’s case.
“Over the past two years, Tsai Shou-shun has allowed [former first lady] Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to be absent from 18 court proceedings. The case has been stalled for more than two years and wasted a lot of public resources,” Chiu said.
Chen was charged with corruption and money laundering, with prosecutors alleging he embezzled public funds and took bribes.
Thirteen other people were charged in connection with the case, including Chen’s wife, son and daughter-in-law.
CUSTODY
Chen was taken into custody on Nov. 12 and was charged with embezzling government funds and laundering money one month later. He was released without bail on Dec. 13 pending trial.
The SIP of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday launched a new bid to detain Chen by appealing again to the Taiwan High Court against the Taipei District Court’s Dec. 18 decision to release Chen without bail.
APPEAL
“We appeal on the grounds that [Chen Shui-bian] could flee the country, conspire with witnesses or destroy evidence,” SIP spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) told reporters.
Cheng had criticized Thursday’s appeal and accused prosecutors of interfering with the trial procedure.
“We are going back and forth with the appeals. We hope prosecutors will stop thinking that they can only investigate cases by detaining people,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU AND FLORA WANG
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS