National Women’s League chairwoman Joanna Lei (雷倩) yesterday announced that there is to be an all-around reelection of the league’s Standing Committee and that she would sue committee members Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) and Tan Hai-chu (談海珠) and attorney Yeh Ching-yuan (葉慶元) for defamation.
The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee yesterday officially found the league to be an affiliate of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and ordered a freeze on the league’s NT$38.5 billion (US$1.31 billion) in assets.
The reelection was requested by the assets committee, Lei said at a news conference called shortly after the assets committee’s announcement, adding that she would not be running.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“As this is a democratic request, we will definitely comply with it,” Lei said.
The election would be an opportunity for the league to transition into a truly democratic organization, she added.
From now on, the league’s Standing Committee would be in a defensive state and although the league’s assets have been frozen, committee operations are to proceed as normal, Lei said.
In response to the assets committee, an attorney appointed by former league chairwoman Cecilia Koo (辜嚴倬雲) had yesterday morning already prepared a first legal complaint, Lei said.
After she was elected chairwoman on Dec. 24 last year, all she could think of was to protect the league, Lei said, adding that on Dec. 25, she pleaded with Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) to reach a decision yet on whether the league was affiliated with the KMT.
On Dec. 29, the ministry, the assets committee and Lei signed a memorandum of understanding that gave the league until Wednesday to sign an administrative contract, which would have seen the league voluntarily dissolve itself within four months and donate 90 percent of its total assets to state coffers.
She had promised that there would be a Standing Committee meeting, but had not promised that the league would sign the contract, Lei said.
Lei said she could not accept false accusations that she was conspiring with the government, adding that she chose to endure these insults to protect the league.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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