The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday requested that a court detain three people, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns.
Chang is suspected of accessing the household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said.
Prosecutors on Monday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders.
Photo: CNA
The recall campaign leaders — Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh (許紹業) — were summoned as suspects in relation to the forgery investigation.
Prosecutors also questioned Renai District (仁愛) KMT committee director Chang Chin-fa (張金發), committee chairman Wu Kuo-sheng (吳國勝), first division secretary Hsiao Chuang-feng (蕭壯峰) and party office secretary-general Lee Ming-yi (李銘議).
Hsiao and Lee were released without bail, but Wu and Chang Chin-fa were reclassified as suspects and taken to the prosecutors’ office for more questioning.
Chang Yuan-hsiang was then summoned by prosecutors, who said they suspect he used his access to the household registration system to assist the recall campaign in finding personal information.
Prosecutors requested that the Keelung District Court detain Chang Yuan-hsiang, Chi and Chang Chin-fa on suspicion of contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), forging documents and destroying evidence.
Wu, Yu and Hsu were released on NT$300,000, NT$150,000 and NT$30,000 bail respectively.
In New Taipei City, the district court ordered that KMT New Taipei City branch secretary-general Chen Chen-jung (陳貞容) be detained and held incommunicado after being questioned for more than two hours, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
Authorities on Monday raided the party’s New Taipei City office and the residences of three people, including Chen, in connection with investigations into the use of forged signatures in recall campaigns against DPP lawmakers.
KMT Banciao office secretary Chu Pei-yi (朱蓓儀), KMT Sanchong District (三重) office executive director Lo Ta-yu (羅大宇) and Banciao party secretary Tsai Kan-tzu (蔡甘子) were released after questioning.
The searches on Monday included the KMT’s New Taipei City branch and followed earlier raids on April 15 targeting 30 locations, including the KMT’s Banciao and Sanchong branches.
KMT New Taipei City branch chairman Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄) criticized Chen’s detention as politically motivated and said the party would definitely file an appeal.
Huang said it was “incomprehensible” that prosecutors would initiate a second round of searches and questioning without presenting new evidence.
He also said that the court’s approval of the detention order after a “short one hour” hearing raised further concerns about the fairness of the proceedings.
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-tung and Wu Sheng-ju
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS