A group of lawyers have formed a legal defense team to assist civil groups and individuals who say they were harassed or intimidated for participating in petition drives to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
DPP spokeswoman Han Ying (韓瑩) said the lawyers are seeking to safeguard democracy and people’s constitutional right to recall, and they would also provide advice on gathering evidence and filing judicial complaints against those who impeded recall efforts.
Attorney Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), director of the Taiwan Forever Society, heads up the eight-member legal team, along with former Social Democratic Party spokesman Chen Yu-hsin (陳又新), former Taiwan Bar Association deputy secretary-general Elisa Fu (傅馨儀) and others, Han said, adding that more lawyers would join in the coming days.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
“Numerous people have said they were harassed and received threats after they signed recall petitions. KMT members also tried to interfere by getting local government officials to ban petition stations at certain locations, disseminating fake news and making accusations to smear the recall campaigners,” she said.
While citizen groups initiated recall efforts against KMT legislators because they were fed up with their actions in the Legislative Yuan, the KMT started its recall movement against DPP lawmakers out of retribution, she said.
Huang said that the signatures of two former KMT members appeared on petitions to recall DPP Legislators Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), but they did not sign the documents themselves.
He said that someone at the KMT had allegedly copied names from old party lists, which is forgery, adding that he had requested that prosecutors investigate the incidents.
Separately, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that he was confident the recall movement to oust KMT legislators would be successful, as he can see that people want to fight back against KMT and Taiwan People’s Party legislators, who he said are working to sell out Taiwan to China.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin
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