A senior Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) official was today detained and held incommunicado over the alleged forgery of signatures in a recall petition targeting an Indigenous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator.
The Pingtung District Court approved the detention of Huang Pi-yun (黃碧雲), deputy chair of the KMT Organizational and Development Committee, about 30 minutes after her court hearing.
The Pingtung case involves 15 KMT staffers suspected of using falsified personal data in a recall campaign targeting DPP Legislator Wu Li-hua (伍麗華), also known as Saidhai Tahovecahe.
Photo: CNA
The Pingtung District Prosecutors' Office earlier said that the case could involve contraventions of the Criminal Code, the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Detaining Huang was necessary due to the seriousness of the charges and concerns that she might collude with accomplices or witnesses, prosecutors said.
Investigators yesterday searched KMT offices in Taoyuan, Nantou, Hualien and Taitung counties and the residences of some of the party's staffers, and questioned 15 people.
After being questioned, KMT staffer Lee Te-chuan (李得全) was today released on bail. Five other KMT staffers were released on bail of NT$100,000 to NT$200,000, while eight were released without bail.
"Prosecutors and investigators have seriously overstepped the bounds of legal investigation by raiding the homes of opposition party staff without solid evidence and coercing confessions, and violating due process and procedural justice," the KMT said in a statement.
This case is the latest in a string of investigations involving KMT members or supporters linked to recall efforts against DPP lawmakers. The KMT has condemned the nationwide probe as politically motivated.
The investigation followed a complaint filed by Wu on April 17, saying that there were 1,521 invalid signatures in the campaign targeting her, including 202 from dead people and 143 from people outside her electoral district.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS