Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday denounced the High Court’s decision to acquit former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of leaking classified information, while Taipei prosecutors raised questions over the judicial process and judgement.
The court said that prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence to convict Ma under the Criminal Code.
Then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) on Aug. 31, 2013, gave Ma transcripts of wiretapped conversations.
Photo: Huang Hsin-po, Taipei Times
The conversations, obtained by the now-defunct Special Investigation Division, allegedly involved Ker and then-legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) discussing ways to lobby the Ministry of Justice to drop a case against Ker.
According to prosecutors, Ma leaked the contents of the recording to then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and then-Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強).
“When I heard the decision, my heart was filled with anguish and outrage,” Ker said. “The court clearly abused its judicial authority to protect Ma and trampled on the Constitution.”
Huang was convicted for leaking secrets to Ma, clearly indicating that Ma had no authority to listen to or receive information from an ongoing judicial probe, as these included classified materials from an investigation, secret surveillance files and private personal information, Ker added.
“As it permitted the president to interfere in a criminal investigation, the case relates to judicial independence for prosecutors, allowing the president to abuse their authority to access confidential materials. This could lead to what I have always warned about: [Taiwan] could become an authoritarian regime with surveillance by a state intelligence apparatus,” he said.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, which investigated the case and pursued charges against Ma, expressed regret over the acquittal.
“Our office pressed charges against Ma after he was [last year] found guilty by the High Court, which ruled that Huang had broken the law and was instructed by Ma to provide the wiretap transcripts,” it said in a statement.
Taipei prosecutors said that the High Court during the retrial did not review the evidence, “but made interpretations that differed considerably from the original ruling.”
It also criticized the court for only allowing prosecutors to speak for 10 minutes.
“This abrogated the normal cross-examination and debate session during a criminal trial, and breached the principle of conducting a fair and just hearing,” the statement said.
The judges also had no basis to state that Taipei prosecutors had presented insufficient evidence for a conviction, as it goes against its reasoning that Ma was not deemed to be an accomplice to Huang’s illegal action, it added.
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