Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan's (
Chen told the legislature's Judicial Committee yesterday that the four regional sections will be closed no later than Sept. 30, 2004
He made the announcement after PFP Legislator Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) questioned him about the value of the four sections, given that much of their work overlaps with that of local district prosecutors.
Chen was at the Judicial Committee meeting to seek approval for the Black Gold Investigation Center's 2003 budget of NT$18 million. The committee approved the budget.
Ministry official later sought to reassure the public that closing down the sections would not mean an end to anti-corruption efforts. They said that by the planned closing date local prosecutors would be experienced enough in anti-black gold efforts to enable them to function independently of the center.
"Prosecutors from the four sec-tions have worked with local prosecutors for the last two years. By Sept 30, 2004, they will have four years of experience working on these cases," a spokesman for Chen told the Taipei Times.
"They will take over the job and work independently, although prosecutors from the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office will still be available to assist them when necessary," the spokesman said.
He declined to comment when asked whether the closure was because of financial problems.
The special investigation sections -- located in the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Offices in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung -- are the core of the Black Gold Investigation Center.
The center was set up on July 1, 2000 at the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office.
It was designed to bring together prosecutors specializing in the handling of black-gold crimes from both the High Court and the district courts, to work with prosecutors nation-wide in the fight against political corruption.
Prosecutors in the four regional sections are authorized to issue orders to local district prosecutors, agents from the Bureau of Investigation, military police officers and police officers.
Once the four sections have been closed, most of their work will be taken over by district prosecutors and the Black Gold Investigation Center will become a supervisory office.
Chief Prosecutor Shen Ming-lun (
"We have always had financial problems," Shen said. "But closing down the offices doesn't mean that our work will end."
Another prosecutor from Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office, Chen Jui-jen (陳瑞仁), said that he was not worried that anti-black gold operations would suffer.
"We [the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office] will back up local district prosecutors whenever necessary, as we always have," he said. "The crackdown on black gold will continue."
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT