Tainan prosecutors today pressed charges against 11 people including several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) staffers for alleged document forgery in recall campaigns targeting two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, while granting deferred prosecution to another 37 people.
Prosecutors said the 11 people, including KMT Tainan chapter deputy director Chuang Chan-kuei (莊占魁), KMT staffers and acquaintances, are suspected of forging petition signatures in an effort to recall DPP Legislators Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) and Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲).
In the recall campaign targeting Wang, 1,679 signatures were forged, including 70 signatures of deceased people, while in the recall campaign targeting Lin, 1,934 signatures were forged, including 60 signatures of deceased people, people familiar with the matter said.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
Chuang, who is being detained, is to be tried at the Tainan District Court.
Prosecutors said they used the KMT’s Tainan constituency party members’ personal information in the recall campaigns without consent and forged their signatures in petitions submitted to the Central Election Commission (CEC).
Two chapter office directors, surnamed Huang (黃) and Lin (林), offered NT$2 and NT$3 for each name list copied for the recall petitions, prosecutors said.
The defendants are accused of document forgery and contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) by illegally processing the personal information of others.
Another 37 people, including KMT staffers and their family and friends, were granted deferred prosecution and face fines ranging from NT$10,000 to NT$100,000.
KMT Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介), the party’s Tainan chapter director, said he respects prosecutors’ investigation.
The party would concentrate efforts on the second-stage petitions, he said.
The CEC today declined to comment on judicial procedures when asked whether the prosecution would affect the recall campaigns targeting Wang and Lin.
The election commission is not to respond to scenarios not involving Article 87 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), it said.
Article 87 of the act stipulates that if the person subject to recall dies, leaves office or resigns before election day, the election commission shall issue a public notice about the termination of the recall.
In related news, prosecutors today requested to detain KMT Keelung chapter director Wu Kuo-sheng (吳國勝) after searching the KMT’s Keelung chapter for the second time in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns targeting two DPP city councilors.
Another suspect, Han Chi-yuan (韓元吉), a former KMT staffer, was released on NT$100,000 bail this morning.
Prosecutors took away surveillance equipment on the second floor of the chapter office, the KMT member registers and some other documents after the search ended yesterday evening when the residences of Wu and Han were also searched.
Wu was listed as a defendant after being questioned as a witness.
Prosecutors said Wu met other “unexposed accomplices” after he was released on bail and therefore requested permission to detain him this morning.
A detention hearing is to be held today.
Han denied wrongdoing when leaving the Keelung Prosecutors’ Office this morning, accusing the prosecutors of persecuting the KMT.
Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), one of the recall campaign's leaders, has been reportedly detained and held incommunicado, while Yu Cheng-i (游正義), another recall campaign leader, was released on NT$150,000 bail.
The Keelung District Court on Tuesday approved a request by prosecutors to detain Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), a former director of the Keelung Department of Civil Affairs, who was also alleged to be involved in this case.
Chang has been accused of illegally accessing the household registration system to help revise and verify a list of members of the KMT in Keelung to assist the effort to gather signatures in a bid to recall DPP city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Tiun (張之豪).
Additional reporting by Lin Ching-chuan
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