Members of the Taiwan Jury Association, along with members of judicial reform advocacy groups, yesterday gathered in front of the Judicial Yuan building, urging the public to join a march on May 5 to demand the implementation of the jury system in Taiwan.
The National Congress on Judicial Reform between November 2016 and August last year gathered experts to discuss whether a jury system or lay assessor system would be more suitable as a civic participation system for Taiwan, but they did not reach a consensus.
The government later decided to establish a citizen judge system and proposed a draft act in November last year.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
An alliance promoting the jury system, led by the association and including the Judicial Reform Foundation, the Taiwan Judicial Reform Care Association and the Anti-Judicial Abuse Action Alliance, urged the government to implement a jury system and to believe in the public’s collective wisdom.
Taiwan Jury Association chairman Chang Ching (張靜), an attorney and former National Conference on Judicial Reform committee member, said the votes in favor of a jury system and a lay assessor system were tied in the conference, so the association is opposed to the government’s insistence on adopting a citizen judge system in disregard of other opinions.
“The jury system is the mainstream judicial trial system and 52 nations have embraced it,” association founder and an attorney Jerry Cheng (鄭文龍) said. “We should use people’s wisdom to conduct fair trials.”
Calling the Judicial Yuan the “private law yuan,” Cheng said the Judicial Yuan serves the exclusive rights of court judges and not those of the public.
The citizen judge system is “fake judicial reform,” because it requires three court judges and six citizen judges, which is likely to result in the court judges still leading the decisions, Cheng added.
In simulated court sessions in preparation for the citizen judge system, there have even been cases in which the court judge scolded the citizen judges, he said.
“Only with a jury system with the collective wisdom of 12 jury members from all walks of life can we prevent judges from being bribed,” Cheng said, adding that he believes a jury system can help prevent miscarriages of justice.
Hu Shih-ho (胡世和), uncle of Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘), an army corporal who died of abuse while serving in the military in 2013, prompting tens of thousands of people to attend a protest demanding legal reform, said the case was moved from military court to a civilian court due to public pressure, but the judge did not sentence the defendants or find the witness guilty of perjury.
People should not only be allowed to express themselves in court, but should have the right to vote as a way to balance the exclusive rights of judges, he said.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
RSS