Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and his legal team yesterday said they would launch a civil action lawsuit to seek NT$30 billion (US$984 million) in punitive damages against Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團), which is at the center of the nation’s latest cooking oil scandal.
Hsieh also demanded that the government immediately freeze assets and properties belonging to the Wei (魏) family, owners of Ting Hsin, and those of the company’s senior executives.
Hsu Hui-feng (許惠峰), a member of the legal team, said that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has failed to take legal action against the Wei family and Ting Hsin, so they have to launch the lawsuit on behalf of consumers.
“We will file a civil action case, and urge members of the public to join us as plaintiffs. We will also seek state compensation for damage to our health,” Hsu said. “We are also launching a criminal lawsuit, so the Wei brothers will receive legal punishment and not escape their responsibility.”
“The Ma administration has acted as though it had nothing to do with the food scandal. Taiwanese can see that this incompetent government has failed to safeguard food safety, and consumers have been eating food that can cause illness,” Hsu added.
Hsieh, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, gave the government a five-day grace period at a press conference last week, asking the administration to freeze assets belonging to the Wei family to prevent them from transferring assets out of the nation.
At the time, Hsieh said a legal attestation letter had been sent to Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) requesting that the government freeze the assets and shares owned by the Wei brothers in the Taipei 101 skyscraper within five days.
Saying that Taiwan has a very high incidence of assorted liver and kidney diseases among the population, Hsieh said the NT$30 billion in compensation he is seeking from Ting Hsin would go into creating a medical treatment fund for consumers who developed liver and kidney damage, as well as other health conditions and illnesses, that are likely due to eating “harmful products” from the group over the years.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
RSS