Former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (
Ma's lawyer, Song Yao-ming (
Song told the court that when his team examined the optical disc which contained the entire recording of Hou's questioning of Wu, Wu answered Hou's questions twice with "I don't know" or "I forgot," but Hou wrote down "that is right" or "yes."
PHOTO: AFP
Song said the statement was forged by Hou and therefore could not be used as evidence in court.
Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) acceded to Song's request that the audio recording be collated with the written statement on Monday -- the eighth hearing of the case.
"I believe the court will make a fair judgment," Ma told reporters as he left the courtroom yesterday.
PHOTO: AFP
Hou, meanwhile, rejected the accusation. He told reporters that a written testimony is not prepared in a question-and-answer format because its main purpose is to keep an account of the true opinions of witnesses.
Hou said it would not be accurate to compare the recording of the questioning with the written testimony, as Wu sometimes answered questions by nodding, adding that the deposition was handed over to Wu for confirmation after the questioning was over.
To present the recording to the press before giving it to the chief justice showed contempt for the court, Hou said as he urged Ma's lawyers to not damage public's trust in the judiciary.
Ma, the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) presidential candidate, is on trial for allegedly misusing a special mayoral allowance fund during his eight years as Taipei mayor and embezzling NT$11 million (US$333,000). He has not contested that he took the special allowance for personal use.
Prosecutors have said that between December 1998 and last July, Ma wired half of his monthly special allowance -- NT$170,000 -- directly to a personal account. They also found that Ma had NT$11,176,227 in bank accounts belonging to himself and his wife.
KMT lawmakers yesterday demanded that Hou be subjected to a judiciary investigation.
KMT caucus whip Hsu Shao-ping (
If the deposition conducted by Hou was found to be fabricated, he might be guilty of forgery, malpractice and abuse of power, she said.
"We have reasonable grounds to suspect that Hou had set his mind that Ma was guilty even before he had finished gathering evidence. Ma has been framed," KMT Legislator Chen Chieh (
KMT legislative caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said Hou should be transferred out of the Special Investigation Task Force and referred to a judiciary investigation.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said the KMT's move against Hou was to a blatant attempt to clear Ma's name.
"It makes no sense at all to accuse Hou of fabricating the deposition," DPP caucus whip Wang Tuoh (王拓) said. "Anyone who has a basic knowledge of the law would know that a deposition is only valid after the person questioned has read the whole piece and signed it."
"If the person questioned disagreed with the deposition, he could ask the prosecutor to make changes. Only when the person questioned found the deposition to be fine would he sign it. How could a deposition be fabricated?" he said.
DPP Legislator Hsu Kuo-yung (
"They therefore came up with this tactic to interfere with the courts review of the case," Hsu said.
Additional reporting by CNA
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
RSS