The Special Investigation Division (SID) is to be formally abolished and its responsibilities transferred back to prosecutors, the Legislative Yuan said yesterday.
The SID’s dissolution will take effect on Jan. 1, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) said.
The SID was created amid expectations that the government would be able to rein in corrupt civil servants, but in 2013, then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) illegally wiretapped a lawmaker, Yu said, adding that the SID has since become a judiciary organ not to combat crime, but to persecute people.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The legislature has abolished the SID because it had become uncontrollable, Yu said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福) said that the dissolution of a judiciary organ tasked with investigating corruption by high-ranking officials seems to send the message that the DPP is willing to tolerate such acts.
The SID should continue to exist, as normal prosecutors might not have the initiative to prosecute cases against high-ranking government officials, the KMT legislative caucus said, adding that the division would also have more time, as investigating such cases was its sole duty.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Lin also questioned amendments to Article 63 of the Organic Act for Courts (法院組織法), which formed the legal basis for the SID, and said that the amendments could not prevent politics interfering in the judiciary.
As the amended article exempts prosecutors from the constraints of Article 62, which states that prosecutors are to perform duties in their jurisdictions, if they are appointed to head investigations by the prosecutor-general, the Taiwan High Court or the attorney general of the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office, the prosecutor-general’s power as the top-ranking entity among the three leaves a loophole for political intervention, Lin said.
In other news, the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to Article 27 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) barring elected officials who step down or candidates whose nominations are invalidated by a court due to bribery from running in by-elections.
Additional reporting by CNA
Three cases of Candida auris, a fungus that can cause a yeast infection known as candidiasis in humans, have been reported in Taiwan over the past few years, but they did not display drug resistance, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said yesterday. Lo made the statement at a news conference in Taipei, one day after the Washington Post reported that the potentially deadly fungus is spreading in US hospitals. The fungus was first discovered in Japan in 2009 and poses a danger to immunocompromised people, with an estimated mortality rate of 30 to 60 percent, Lo
‘DIRE’: Taiwan would not engage in ‘dollar diplomacy,’ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, after China reportedly offered Honduras up to US$3 billion to establish relations The government yesterday recalled its ambassador to Honduras after the Central American nation sent its foreign minister to China, signaling that it would sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Suspicions concerning ties with Honduras are rife after Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Tuesday last week wrote on Twitter that her country would pursue diplomatic ties with China. Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina traveled to China on Wednesday “to promote efforts for the establishment of diplomatic relations” on instructions from Castro, Reuters yesterday quoted Honduran presidential spokesman Ivis Alvarado as saying. The government “has decided to immediately recall the ambassador to Honduras
SWITCH TO BEIJING: The government severed diplomatic relations about an hour after Honduras announced the move, saying that no semi-official ties would be maintained Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Honduras and ended all cooperation with the Central American country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, about an hour and a half after the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Twitter at 8am Taiwan time that the nation would cut its ties with Taiwan. Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday sent Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina to Beijing to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations. She announced the plan on March 14 on Twitter. “To safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan is terminating diplomatic ties with Honduras with immediate effect” after communication with
MEDIA, SOCIETY FOCUS: Doublethink Lab said that Beijing is trying to coerce countries that rely on China economically to pursue policies in its favor China has stronger influence over Taiwan’s media and society than any other country, the Taipei-based Doublethink Lab think tank said yesterday, as it announced its China Index gauging Beijing’s global influence. Taiwan ranked 11th overall among 82 countries assessed, but first in terms of social and media influence, Doublethink Lab chairman Puma Shen (沈伯洋) told a news conference in Taipei. More than 200 experts and academics participated in the project, including some highly influential figures, Shen said. The index collects information from countries worldwide to gauge China’s influence and assess how Chinese policies affect them, Shen said. In terms of Chinese