Acting Prosecutor-General Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) yesterday said that cases under investigation by the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) would not be delayed by personnel changes following the resignation of the former chief prosecutor, Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明), last week.
Tseng made the remarks during a visit to the prosecutor’s office by Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
Hsieh met Tseng, SIP spokesperson Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) and several other prosecutors and Ministry of Justice officials for three hours to discuss the progress of cases under investigation by the SIP and personnel changes following Chen Tsung-ming’s departure.
PHOTO: CNA
“Even though the post of the top prosecutor is currently vacant, SIP prosecutors have never wavered in their commitment to investigate the cases assigned to the panel,” Tseng said.
Hsieh later said that after talking with SIP prosecutors, he was confident that the progress of the cases under investigation would not be delayed as a result of personnel changes.
In response to rumors that all 14 members of the SIP wanted to leave the panel after Chen Tsung-ming resigned, Tseng yesterday said that he had not seen any resignations since he took over as acting top prosecutor.
Hsieh said there would be continuity in the SIP because it is up to the new prosecutor-general to decide whether the panel’s prosecutors would be asked to stay or reassigned to the posts they had before they joined the panel. Meanwhile, he said, all prosecutors remained part of the panel.
Chen Tsung-ming tendered his resignation immediately after the Control Yuan impeached him last week.
The government watchdog voted 8-3 to impeach Chen Tsung-ming, citing concerns over his “integrity” and “sincerity” in leading the SIP’s probe into alleged corruption involving former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his family.
On Monday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) nominated Deputy Minister of Justice Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) to replace Chen Tsung-ming as top prosecutor.
Since many of the panel’s prosecutors have worked under Huang in the past at the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office, it is widely expected that they will stay on if Huang assumes the post.
The panel probes major cases and has led the investigation into the former first family. It reports directly to the prosecutor-general.
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