Former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) was yesterday sentenced to 15 months in prison, which can be converted into a fine, for leaking classified information related to prosecutors’ investigations in an alleged case of influence-peddling involving Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
The leak of information to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) in 2013 led to what was termed by media as “September strife” between Ma, then-chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and Wang, who was stripped of his KMT membership.
However, Wang challenged the party’s action through a series of ongoing legal battles and was able to keep his position as speaker.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Wang allegedly used his political influence to press the Ministry of Justice to drop a legal case against Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
Huang was convicted of violating the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法) by disclosing details of the investigation.
The Taiwan High Court’s ruling against Huang is final.
The case was taken to the High Court after the Taipei District Court sentenced Huang in March last year to 14 months in prison.
After the district court ruling, he resigned as state prosecutor-general, and on Jan. 16, he retired as a chief prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
Ministry of Civil Service officials said Huang’s conviction would not affect his right to receive a pension of about NT$170,000 a month.
Citing the Civil Service Retirement Act (公務人員退休法), they said that civil servants would lose their pensions only if they have been deprived of their civil rights by a court, are convicted of sedition or treason, lose their Republic of China citizenship, or die.
Ker yesterday criticized the court ruling, accusing the judiciary of intentionally delaying the process, so that Huang would be able to retire and be entitled to full retirement pension before the verdict is handed down.
He added that former Investigation Bureau director Yeh Mao-sheng (葉茂盛) was sentenced to two years in prison for “leaking classified information,” but Huang was sentenced to only one year and three months in prison for two criminal offenses.
“The judiciary is clearly biased and intentionally gave Huang a very light sentence,” Ker said.
On the other hand, Ker said that, if Huang is guilty, Ma is equally guilty, and he is only able to avoid prosecution because he is the president and legally cannot be indicted.
“The court ruling also shows that Ma is an accomplice in the case and must be prosecuted after he steps down,” Ker added.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has