The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office took away one of the main organizers of a Kaohsiung legislatorial recall campaign for questioning after carrying out a search on the recall campaign's headquarters and the residences of its organizers today.
The recall campaign targets Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislators Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) and Huang Jie (黃捷), referring to itself as a “double strike” campaign against the DPP.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
Police questioned and took away Chu Lei (朱磊), who is leading the campaign against Hsu Chih-chieh, and confiscated several computers.
The residences of Chu and another campaign leader, surnamed Huang (黃), were also searched.
Speaking to assembled media, Chu said that he “was not surprised” by the investigators and that this investigation “demonstrates the importance” of the recall campaign.
Chu compared the search to authoritarianism, saying that in the past he would have had to answer to Taiwan Garrison Command, whereas now it is to the Investigation Bureau and in the future it would be martial law courts.
Chu said details about the case were not entirely clear to him and that he would not comment further, although he said the search was not related to the second stage of his recall campaign and called on people to continue supporting their efforts.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office declined to comment.
Hsu Shang-hsien (徐尚賢), the “double strike” campaign leader, called today’s search an example of “blatant political interference.”
The Kaohsiung Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chapter said it was not involved with the campaign, although it called for a fair judicial process and asked for investigators to act impartially.
Legislative Speaker and former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), a member of the KMT, said in a Facebook post today that the public expects the judiciary to uphold democracy and rule of law, calling on prosecutors and police to defend their independence.
Han expressed his hopes that the judicial process would never serve any political party and that those involved would uphold Taiwan’s hard-won freedoms.
Additional reporting by Ko Yu-hao
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