Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) was summoned yesterday by the Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office for questioning as part of the SID investigation of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) replacing Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) as its presidential candidate.
Chen on Oct. 7 filed a suit against KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and KMT Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川), accusing the two of so inn a teng (搓圓仔湯), a commonly used Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) term that means “kneading to make rice ball soup.”
When used in a political context, the term means schemes involving the coaxing of a candidate to drop out of a race by offering money, a government position or other enticements.
Hung had said in a news conference that she would not accept any under-the-table arrangements and would not bow to pressure, which Chen said might be evidence that there had been threats or inappropriate offers made when Chu talked to Hung about her candidacy.
As Chen’s suit followed a similar complaint filed by Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安), the SID said it decided to combine the two lawsuits into one case to streamline the investigation.
On Wednesday last week, the SID summoned Chu, Lee and Hung separately for questioning.
The SID summoned Chen after she claimed on Thursday last week that she knew of “two individuals who are in possession of an audio recording of the meeting between Chu and Hung.”
Before her 10:30am questioning yesterday, Chen told reporters that she cannot reveal who the two individuals are, as she fears that “someone might try to pressure them” if their identities are made public.
Chen left the SID’s offices after 45 minutes.
In the afternoon, one of Hung’s bodyguards, surnamed Lin (林), and Tsai Hui-chen (蔡慧貞), a reporter for online news group Storm Media that reported on Hung’s replacement by the KMT, were called in for questioning by the SID.
When departing after two hours of questioning, Tsai was asked by reporters if she is one of the two individuals mentioned by Chen, to which she replied: “Of course not.”
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