The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns.
Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said.
Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh (許紹業), were summoned as suspects in relation to the forgery investigation.
Prosecutors also questioned Renai District (仁愛) KMT committee director Chang Chin-fa (張金發), committee chairman Wu Kuo-sheng (吳國勝), first division secretary Hsiao Chuang-feng (蕭壯峰) and party office secretary-general Lee Ming-yi (李銘議).
Hsiao and Lee were released without bail, but Wu and Chang Chin-fa were reclassified as suspects and taken to the prosecutors’ office for more questioning.
Chang Yuan-hsiang was then summoned by prosecutors, who said they suspect he used his access to the administrative system to assist the recall campaign in finding personal information.
Prosecutors requested that the Keelung District Court detain Chang Yuan-hsiang, Chi and Chang Chin-fa for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), forging documents and destroying evidence.
Wu, Yu and Hsu were released on NT$300,000, NT$150,000 and NT$30,000 bail respectively.
In New Taipei City, prosecutors petitioned the district court to detain and hold incommunicado KMT Banciao District (板橋) office secretary-general Chen Chen-jung (陳貞容) after questioning her for more than two hours.
Yesterday, authorities raided the party’s New Taipei City office and the residences of three individuals, including Chen, in connection with investigations into the use of forged signatures in recall campaigns against DPP lawmakers.
KMT Banciao office secretary Chu Pei-yi (朱蓓儀), KMT Sanchong District (三重) office executive director Lo Ta-yu (羅大宇) and Banciao party secretary Tsai Kan-tzu (蔡甘子) were also summoned and questioned.
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-tung and Wu Sheng-ju
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