Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) decision to sue prosecutors involved in the investigation into his usage of a special mayoral allowance was designed to stop them from further probing the matter, his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterpart said yesterday.
Ma, acquitted late last month in his "special allowance fund" corruption case, on Thursday filed a lawsuit against three prosecutors -- Hou Kuan-jen (
DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said it was clear that Ma hoped to use a legal technicality to prevent the three prosecutors from being involved in future investigations into Ma's other cases in accordance with the Criminal Procedural Law (刑事訴訟法).
PHOTO: CNA
"What Ma did suggests that he knew the prosecutors held some [unfavorable] clues, which is why he hastened to sue them," Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that Ma should say and do things that increase the public's confidence in the judicial system, rather than resorting to rhetoric and conduct that encourage the public to sue prosecutors.
At a separate setting yesterday, Cabinet Secretary-General Chen Chin-jun (
"We respect Ma's decision to sue the prosecutors ... but the judicial system is an independent institution that should never be tampered with or challenged by any politician," he said.
Ma's lawyers on Thursday accused Hou of forgery, saying that as one of the leading prosecutors in the case, he wrongly transcribed the testimony given by Wu Li-ju (吳麗洳), a Taipei City Government treasurer.
Ma's lawyers also accused all three prosecutors of abusing their power by not indicting Chen Yu-hsin (
Upon filing the lawsuit, one of Ma's lawyers, C.V. Chen (陳長文), said the lawsuit was aimed at "punishing and educating" prosecutors who abuse their power as contained in Article 125 of the Criminal Code (刑法).
The KMT caucus also threw its support behind Ma yesterday.
KMT caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said Ma had behaved with integrity throughout his life but was indicted simply because the prosecutors had an ax to grind and abused their power by "selectively deciding their targets for indictment."
Kuo said that the lawsuit had nothing to do with Ma's campaign for the presidency but was aimed at "winning back justice" for Ma and every individual who, he said, had been victims of an unjust judicial system.
The KMT does not rule out submitting a draft bill when the new legislative session begins on how the legislature can counteract the power of the Special Investigation Task Force of the Supreme Prosecutors Office when members of the task force are found to have overstepped their authority, she said.
Ma was indicted last February on charges of embezzling NT$11.17 million from a special allowance fund designated for his discretionary use while he served as Taipei mayor from 1998 to 2006. The funds in question are disbursed to cover the mayor's job-related expenses.
While the court has acquitted Ma in the first and second trials on the grounds that he merely followed past practice and had no intent to embezzle, the special investigation team is still probing other corruption allegations against him.
Among them are cases involving the three-in-one sale of the Broadcasting Corporation of China (
Both deals took place when Ma was party chairman.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and staff writer
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry