The Ministry of Justice announced yesterday the removal of Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office head prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) for alleged involvement in an improper lobbying case involving Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
The Executive Yuan approved the removal yesterday, the ministry said, adding that Chen will be transferred to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
The ministry said the removal came after an investigation by the ministry’s Prosecutor Evaluation Committee, which reached a decision on Saturday last week. The committee said Chen was involved in the lobbying case and that it recommended he be given an administrative reprimand.
Photo: CNA
The committee said Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) gave the green light to Special Investigation Division (SID) prosecutor Cheng Shen-yuan (鄭深元) to apply for a wiretap on subjects unrelated to any open investigations.
Huang also approved the production of a transcript of a wiretapped conversation, which was used when the SID reported possible misconduct on Sept. 6, based on a conversation it overheard between Wang and Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
In the conversation, Wang and Ker discussed lobbying then-minister of justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) and Chen Shou-huang to prevent Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office prosecutor Lin Shiow-tao (林秀濤) from appealing Ker’s acquittal in June in a breach of trust case, the SID said.
The committee said that Huang visited President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) with information on an ongoing investigation that was obtained via the wiretaps.
Huang’s action in reporting to the president had no constitutional basis, the committee said, as the Republic of China Constitution does not list the president as the head of the Legislative Yuan, Ministry of Justice or the Executive Yuan.
The committee said Huang and SID section chief Yang Jung-tsung (楊榮宗) have undermined the credibility of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, the SID’s superior authority. It recommended that Huang be dismissed and Yang and Cheng be admonished. The trio have been handed over to the Control Yuan.
The committee recommended that Chen Shou-huang and Lin Hsiu-tao be given lighter administrative reprimands, as they are believed to have been forthcoming with their accounts, the committee said.
In response to the ministry’s announcement yesterday, Chen Shou-huang said he respected the ministry’s decision, while insisting on his innocence.
In related developments, a motion to impeach Huang was withdrawn at the last minute on Thursday, delaying a second attempt to remove him for leaking information to the president about his political rival.
The withdrawal does not mean Huang is off the hook, as the Control Yuan member who withdrew the motion, Wu Feng-shan (吳豐山), said he will resubmit it at a later date.
Wu withdrew the motion after some of the nine members present at Thursday’s meeting complained that the committee’s report about Huang’s alleged leaking of information was “not complete” and that they had not received an official copy of the report.
Huang, insisting that it was his duty to disclose cases of improper lobbying involving senior politicians, has vowed to resign if he is impeached by the Control Yuan or found guilty in a first court trial.
He survived the first Control Yuan attempt to impeach him on Nov. 28, when a tied vote defeated the motion.
According to Control Yuan regulations, an impeachment vote needs a clear majority to be passed. An impeachment meeting can be held a maximum of twice against an official for the same charges.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS