The investigation into the Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾) case would hold all judicial personnel involved accountable to the strictest interpretation of the law, Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) said yesterday, while pledging more action against misconduct to uphold the judiciary’s credibility.
Hsu pledged to investigate the few judges who might be contravening laws to protect the work of honest judges and uphold the dignity of the judiciary.
Weng, president of Chia Her Industrial Co (佳和), is accused of bribing 40 to 50 judicial workers, judges and prosecutors to obtain non-guilty or lighter sentences in four criminal cases.
Photo: CNA
Weng allegedly gave them shirts and arranged expensive banquets for them.
Weng’s actions came to light after the Control Yuan passed a motion to impeach Weng’s friend, former Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries secretary-general Shih Mu-chin (石木欽), for allegedly breaching the Judges Act (法官法).
Shih, who until 2017 served as a Supreme Court judge, did not recuse himself from cases involving Weng and allegedly provided Weng with legal advice, investigators from the Judicial Yuan and Ministry of Justice said.
The ministry’s Human Resource Review Committee yesterday said that 26 judges should be punished for their involvement in the case, but only Supreme Administrative Court Judge Cheng Hsiao-kang (鄭小康) is suspected of breaching Article 51 of the Judges Act (法官法), and his case has been forwarded to the Control Yuan.
The committee said that the other 25 judges could not be punished due to the statute of limitations.
Cheng is the eighth judge whose case has been forwarded to the Control Yuan.
The other judges, who are not among the 25, include former judges Lin Chi-fu (林奇福), Yen Nan-chuan (顏南全), Su Yi-chou (蘇義洲), Tseng Ping-shan (曾平杉), Chen Yi-chung (陳義仲) and Lin Chin-tsun (林金村).
They were named in an investigative report released on Jan. 18, while Cheng and the other 25 judges were named in an investigative report released yesterday.
Three former grand justices were investigated by the Council of Grand Justices Disciplinary Committee and found innocent, the ministry said.
The committee cleared 23 judicial workers and prosecutors of wrongdoing due to a lack of documentation or credible evidence, or because their actions were within the parameters of normal social interaction.
Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) at 6pm yesterday held a news conference stating that four prosecutor-generals and 10 prosecutors are also under suspicion, and they are being investigated.
Former minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫), who at the time being investigated was serving as chief prosecutor at the Taiwan High Prosecutor’s Office, is suspected of having accepted gifts and attended multiple banquets held by Weng, and is being investigated, Tsai said.
The Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, which on March 11 convened a panel to investigate the case, yesterday said that it would, from today, begin discussing what documents to look into.
The panel said it would focus on the administrative investigations conducted and invite agencies to attend panel meetings.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
RSS