Wednesday's election of an indicted suspect in a criminal case, Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), to the speakership of the Kaohsiung City Council prompted a dispute between the nation's highest law-enforcement officer, the Minister of Justice, and the head of the judiciary, the President of the Judicial Yuan, over the responsibility of judges for delays in bringing cases to trial.
Late Wednesday, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) called a press conference at which he criticized the fact that two years had passed without a date being set for Chu's trial. Chu was indicted on charges of forgery and breach of trust.
"Judges are delaying cases with the result that indicted suspects are not appropriately and promptly punished," Chen said.
He said that Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生) should urge all judges to speed up the processing of cases, instead of delaying them.
"Prosecutors are working hard to convict as many suspects as possible, but the judges are not. This is not acceptable," Chen said.
Chen's remarks were endorsed by Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday. "I agree with Chen's remarks," he told reporters.
Speaking on behalf of Judicial Yuan President Weng, Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Yang Ren-shou (楊仁壽) held a press conference yesterday morning to respond to Chen's remarks.
Yang denied the allegations from Chen that judges perform poorly. He said that Weng was very surprised when he heard what Chen said on Wednesday.
"How did Chen come up with a remark like that? He is the justice minister and the nation's top law-enforcement officer. He is supposed to understand the legal process better than anyone else," Yang said.
"For Chu's document-forging case the court received 30 huge piles of documentation, including interrogation records, witnesses' statements, etcetera. They definitely need a long time to review all these. The same explanation applied to Chu's alleged bribery case. Judges are working very hard -- instead of being lazy, like the minister accused them of being," Yang explained.
The indicted politician, Chu, is a 58-year-old independent Kaohsiung City councilor who recently won his fifth term in office in the Dec. 7 elections. He also won the city council's speakership with 25 votes from a total of 44 city councilors on Wednesday.
In 1998, Chu, who was then a KMT councilor, revealed his marked ballot paper to the media in a show of party loyalty as he voted for the KMT candidate for the speakership of the Kaohsiung City Council. He was indicted on a charge of revealing classified legal documents. He was acquitted, however, by the Kaohsiung District Court, which found that a ballot paper was not a classified legal document, a ruling that was upheld on appeal by the Taiwan High Court's Kaohsiung Branch.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
RSS