A Taipei District Court judge has joined calls to retract nominations to the Council of Grand Justices, saying one of the nominees played a role in a miscarriage of justice in a 1989 case.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Thursday sparked a firestorm over his naming of Shilin District Court President Lin Jyun-yi (林俊益) among four nominees to seats on the Council of Grand Justices, which is responsible for interpretation of the Constitution.
Legal reform organizations cited a case in 1989, when Lin was a public prosecutor in Taipei.
The organizations said that Lin breached legal procedures by ordering the arrest of a suspect surnamed Huang (黃) associated with a homicide case that stemmed from a robbery.
Taipei District Court judge Lin Meng-huang (林孟皇) said Ma’s nomination of Lin Jyun-yi should be withdrawn, because Lin Jyun-yi did not issue an arrest warrant for Huang, despite putting him on a wanted list.
Huang was found not guilty and he filed for — and received — financial compensation for wrongful incarceration.
He spent more than nine years in prison.
“During that time, convictions in robbery-homicide cases commonly came with the death sentence,” Lin Meng-huang said. “As such, Lin Jyun-yi should have been more careful handling the case to prevent wrongful conviction.”
“The Council of Grand Justices is the arbiter of constitutional order and it should help protect people’s rights,” Lin Meng-huang said. “Huang’s case shows that Lin Jyun-yi did not have the concept of human rights in mind, thus he is not suitable for the position.”
Critics said Lin Jyun-yi disregarded due process in Huang’s case because he wanted to bolster conviction rates to enhance his reputation and help earn promotions in the justice system.
Lin Jyun-yi’s nomination has also been criticized by civic groups and legal reform organizations because of his acquittal of Ma on corruption charges while Lin Jyun-yi was a Supreme Court judge.
Critics said Lin Jyun-yi’s nomination was a reward from Ma for a favorable ruling, as well as part of the president’s attempt to pack the Council of Grand Justices with his nominees, which would enable him to wield influence over the courts with the prospect of a number of corruption charges and judicial proceedings against Ma waiting for his presidency to end on May 20 next year.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the
RSS