Supreme Court Chief Justice Wu Tsan (吳燦) yesterday became the first senior judicial official to issue a public apology over a scandal that allegedly involves nearly 40 judicial workers and prosecutors who allegedly had inappropriate ties with Chia Her Industrial Co president Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾).
During an interview, Wu said: “I wish to apologize, on behalf of the Supreme Court, to other members of the judiciary and the public, because we have not done our task well.”
In 2012, Weng was sentenced to eight years in prison for breaching the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法). The sentence was later reduced to four months.
Photo: CNA
Last year, the Control Yuan passed a motion to impeach former Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries secretary-general Shih Mu-chin (石木欽), a friend of Weng, for allegedly breaching the Judges Act (法官法).
Shih, who until 2017 served a Supreme Court judge, did not to recuse himself from cases involving Weng and allegedly provided Weng with legal advice, investigators of the Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Justice said.
Investigators in January said they had found that up to 40 judicial works have had “inappropriate dealings” with Weng.
Of the 20 judges involved, Lin Chi-fu (林奇福), Yen Nan-chuan (顏南全) and Wu Hsiung-ming (吳雄銘) have admitted that they have handled cases involving Weng.
Wu Tsan cited former Judicial Yuan vice president Su Yung-chin (蘇永欽) as saying that “even if one is dissatisfied with the Supreme Court, they should still retain basic respect for the court of final appeal.”
However, the Weng scandal has undermined public trust in the judiciary, Wu Tsan said.
Media reports on the case have irrevocably tarnished the court’s reputation, and in extension that of the entire judiciary, he said.
Members of the judiciary would not have to cut all personal ties, but they must be careful to keep them separated from their professional dealings, Wu Tsan said.
However, he hopes that the issue would soon subside and the court return to its daily business as court of final appeal, Wu Tsan said.
The Supreme Court has to work to gain respect by the public and the lower courts, he said.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS