The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has continued its investigation into allegations of forged signatures in recall efforts today by searching the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) city chapter and questioning several personnel including the chapter director, according to media reports.
Among those questioned and detained were KMT Taipei chapter director Huang Lu Chin-ju (黃呂錦茹), chapter secretary-general Chu Wen-ching (初文卿), chapter secretary Yao Fu-wen (姚富文) and first district committee executive director Tseng Fan-chuan (曾繁川).
Prosecutors said they would not confirm reports about who had been summoned.
Photo: Lo Pei-te, Taipei Times
The investigation centers on allegations that the ongoing recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) used falsified signatures on the recall petitions.
This comes after the questioning of several KMT members by prosecutors on Monday this week, who released six of them on bail on Tuesday.
Six people were questioned as defendants in the case: Chang Ke-jin (張克晉), Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮), Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟), Lai Yi-jen (賴苡任), Man Chih-kang (滿志剛) and Chen Kuan-an (陳冠安).
Liu, Lai, Man and Chen are members of the KMT Youth League and have been called the "four knights of the recall Wu campaign."
Prosecutors also questioned five people as witnesses: Hsieh Li-hua (謝麗華) and her husband, Chan Chia-wen (詹嘉文), Liu’s husband Lin Jui (林叡) and Lee Hsiao-liang’s mother.
After questioning, prosecutors declared that Lin was a defendant but changed Chang's status to a witness along with the other witnesses.
Liu, Lai and Man were each released on NT$500,000 bail, Lee and Lin each posted bail of NT$300,000, while Chen was released on NT$200,000 bail, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said on Tuesday.
In related news, the New Taipei District Court yesterday night said six individuals were released on bail amounts between NT$30,000 and NT$200,000 and barred from leaving the country in the ongoing investigation into alleged fraud in the recall campaigns targeting DPP legislators Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), Wu Chi-ming (吳琪銘), Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城).
Yesterday, New Taipei City prosecutors directed a search of 30 residences, offices and KMT branches after receiving evidence of irregularities in recall petitions suggesting that the Criminal Code and Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) could have been violated, prosecutors said.
The six individuals are Hsieh Ching-jen (謝慶認), director of the KMT's Banciao District (板橋) office; Tsai Kan-tzu (蔡甘子), the KMT party secretary for the district; Lo Ta-yu (羅大宇), executive director of the KMT's Sanchong District (三重) office; Ying Ta-hua (應大華), a KMT volunteer; Tan Chen-yao (譚鎮耀), chief petitioner in the recall effort, and Wang Yu-jen (王昱人), a campaign organizer.
The KMT today held a demonstration “against dictatorship” to support its youth members in the face of what it called politically motivated investigations by the DPP.
About 30 people joined the protest, with some holding signs with slogans like “I am Taiwanese, I oppose green [the DPP].”
Several KMT members and officials were there, including Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Wang Yu-jen who had been released on bail.
Some supporters signed petitions to recall DPP politicians while others shouted, “Don’t listen to the Communists!”
In a news conference at noon today, Chu called on the public to push back against “DPP government dictatorship” and support the KMT’s recall efforts.
Chu also called on supporters to gather in front of the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office tonight.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) called for an impartial judicial process and said laws should not be used to suppress dissent.
Additional reporting by Chen Yi-shao and Shih Hsiao-kuang
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS