The judicial system in Taiwan, in particular the way prosecutors and judges conduct investigations and trials, has long been used as a “shameless” tool for political persecution, of which the best example is the case of imprisoned former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), activists said yesterday.
A group of law professors, physicians and activists made the comments at a book-launching ceremony, organized by the publisher Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP).
The book, titled Judicial justice and human rights — the Chen Shui-bian case (司法正義與人權 — 從扁案談起), collected eight theses that examine Chen’s case from various legal points of view, including defendants’ rights, the president’s state affairs fund, presidential authority and correlation between politics and justice, among others.
“I would say that Chen’s cases are ‘benchmark cases’ of transitional justice in Taiwan because they have been political cases rather than legal cases, as well as the result of turning the judicial system into a political instrument, from the first minute,” said one of the authors, National Taipei University professor Chen Yao-hsiang (陳耀祥).
The same judge heard Chen’s state affairs fund case and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) special allowance case, which were essentially similar, but handled the trials differently and handed down drastically different rulings, he cited as an example.
“The trial against Chen was like a trial against a war criminal, rather than a citizen,” he said.
Participants at the launch said the “illegal and absurd practices” during Chen’s prosecution included pre-trial detention, extended detention for unconvincing reasons, prosecutors demanding that a witness provide false testimony and the arraignment of Chen’s three-year-old granddaughter as a witness.
The former president’s lawyer Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) said that the judicial system is the only institution that has not yet been democratized, as evidenced by the malpractice in Chen’s trials.
Turning to the issue of Chen’s medical parole, Aletheia University law professor Wu Chin-ching (吳景欽) said the Ministry of Justice has been sitting on the issue and ignoring human rights.
Wu said it is not an issue only for the former president, because records show that about 600 of the 900 prisoners who were granted medical parole in the past never made it back to prison.
“They all died. They were already very ill and very close to death prior to their parole,” Wu said, adding that Chen’s case also indicated the necessity of prison reform.
Taipei District Court judge Hung Ying-hua (洪英花) said the ministry has not reacted to a Control Yuan correction in September last year of its failure to establish standard operating procedures and qualification criteria for medical parole.
National Taiwan University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who was on Chen Shui-bian’s private medical team, urged the government to establish clear criteria for prisoners’ medical paroles.
“Only an authoritarian regime would prefer ambiguity over clear regulations, because that is what allows it to play tricks,” Ko said.
Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), said he was glad law experts have spoken on his father’s cases, which he said was a “cruel political vendetta.”
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to