Several legal reform groups aim to dissuade lawmakers from "hastily" passing amendments that will curtail prosecutors' power to search, a spokesman from one of the associations said yesterday.
The current Code of Criminal Procedure, which gives prosecutors full powers to issue a search warrant, may be changed with as many as 12 sets of draft amendments, which will transfer these powers to judges.
Having read just a few draft articles at a meeting of the legislature's Judicial Committee on Dec. 27, there was a vote to hand over the bills to a full session of the legislature.
Chen Jui-jen (陳瑞仁), a spokesman for the Prosecutors' Reform Association (檢察官改革協會), said yesterday he was concerned the KMT may seek to pass a set of amendments -- proposed by KMT lawmaker Kao Yu-jen (高育仁) and others -- that leaves little room for prosecutors to conduct searches without warrants in exigent circumstances.
"If it becomes law, preservation of evidence in criminal investigations would become very difficult," Chen said.
The Reform Association and Judicial Reform Foundation (民間司法改革基金會), plus two groups representing police officers and investigators, are scheduled to lobby legislators today -- particularly those from the KMT -- and ask them to review the amendments "with more care," Chen said.
The Prosecutors' Reform Association has its own version of an amendment to the law which was co-written with and proposed in the legislature by DPP lawmaker Chiu Tai-san (
A key part of this draft, Chen said, was about exigent searches by prosecutors. The draft says prosecutors as well as judges should obtain a search warrant from a magistrate before they personally conduct a search, unless the situation is urgent.
In such situations, the draft says, the prosecutors or judges shall be required to show their identification cards and report the search to magistrates within three days after the search.
Chen said such measures for an exigent search were necessary in probing vote buying.
"For example, if you've seized a name list of vote buyers and found some names ticked, meaning these people have been paid off, then you've got to search these people's homes immediately, without having to petition the court, or else just watch the evidence get destroyed."
The Ministry of Justice has been struggling to maintain the status quo over the search warrant issue and appears not to be willing to see prosecutors lose their power to search.
While recognizing that changes of some sort to the current law are inevitable, the ministry has not tabled its own version of amendments for fear that such a move would hint at a retreat from its stance.
But the Prosecutors Reform Association takes a different point of view. "It's a better policy to seek reasonable law amendments than just to stall for time," Chen said. "We do not oppose amending the law, but oppose amending it hastily and without adequate discussion," he said.
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