With two major witnesses out of the country, the vice president's libel suit against The Journalist (新新聞周報) appears to have ground to a halt.
Tseng Chao-ming (曾昭明), a secretary in the Presidential Office, has resigned from his post to finish his PhD program in the UK, lawyers for Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) told the Taipei District Court yesterday.
Chen Shih-ning (
The information has come as surprise not only to the judge -- who has just returned from two months of study in the US himself -- but also to the defense, which claims it knew nothing about the departures of the two witnesses.
The news is a setback for The Journalist, which says the two witnesses can verify its claim made in an article last year that Lu was spreading rumors about President Chen Shui-bian (
Wang Chien-chuang (
Wang contended the two left because they were involuntarily exposed to the media and faced enormous pressure. He blamed the vice president's camp for leaking their identities.
"Had they not been exposed to the media, the court could have gotten their testimony," Wang said.
"They have been under enormous pressure after the exposure, and apparently the pressure does not come from The Journalist," he said, suggesting the vice president's side has attempted to obstruct Tseng and Chen's testimony.
Yu Mei-nu (
"It's their hope to stall the case indefinitely because they know they're lying about the vice president," she said.
Lu's lawyers said that Tseng and Chen have dodged four court subpoenas since June and the court should not delay proceedings because of them. The lawyers requested that arguments be heard immediately.
But Lai decided the court should first confirm the reasons for the witnesses' absence before arguments begin.
"If the witnesses refuse to testify, it'll apparently weaken the defendant's case. But above all, I have to make sure the dignity of law is maintained," Lai said.
"If witnesses are allowed to dodge the court's subpoena like this, there'll be big problems for the court to call witnesses in the future," he added.
The judge asked The Journalist to hand in information about the residences of the two witnesses in two weeks.
Lu filed the suit against The Journalist last December to seek the restoration of her reputation after the magazine published a controversial article about her a month before.
In the suit, Lu is calling for The Journalist to apologize for accusing her of spreading rumors that Chen was having an affair with his translator.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
‘A SERIOUS THREAT’: Japan has expressed grave concern over the Strait’s security over the years, which demonstrated Tokyo’s firm support for peace in the area, an official said China’s military drills around Taiwan are “incompatible” with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday. “Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan,” Iwaya told Wang during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan are incompatible with this,” a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cited Iwaya as saying. The Foreign Ministers’ Meetings are a series of diplomatic
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
RSS