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
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