An amendment proposed yesterday by the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) caucus to tighten the requirements for a court to order a suspect detained would be a major change to the judicial system made to benefit a single individual, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said today.
TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and legislators Chang Chi-kai (張啓楷) and Chen Gau-tzu (陳昭姿) proposed a change to the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) that would eliminate “risk of colluding with accomplices or witnesses” as a reason to detain someone incommunicado, such as in the ongoing case of former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Ko and another defendant are currently being held incommunicado in connection to an ongoing corruption investigation regarding the Core Pacific City redevelopment case.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The TPP proposal said that the “risk of collusion” is cited too frequently, with only vague justification to detain defendants in contravention of their constitutional right to a presumption of innocence.
Instead, detainment should only be an option when there are no alternative measures and “concrete facts” already establish the risk of destroying evidence or fleeing, the draft proposal says.
The Legislative Yuan is scheduled to debate the proposal on Friday.
At a news conference, Wu accused TPP lawmakers of abusing their legislative powers to amend laws on a case-by-case basis to protect Ko
If the amendment were to pass, all types of criminals would take advantage of it, Wu said.
Fraud rings, organized crime, Chinese spies and child abusers would be able to collude with accomplices, harass witnesses and get away with their crimes, Wu said.
DPP Legislator Chen Pei-yu (陳培瑜) cited a murder case in Taichung, in which prosecutors were initially unable to detain their primary suspect.
After the suspect was released on bail, she allegedly forced several witnesses to change their statements, although she was later detained when further evidence was uncovered, Chen said.
Huang’s amendment would allow such suspects to remain free, Chen added.
In a statement today, the TPP said that its proposal was not for the benefit of Ko specifically, but rather for all who could find themselves in a similar situation, as the presumption of innocence is an internationally recognized principle of criminal procedure.
A 2009 constitutional judgement stated that detention should “only be used after ensuring that there are no other alternatives,” as it “severely infringes on the personal liberty of criminal defendants, and seriously impacts their reputation and credibility,” the TPP said.
Legal experts have urged reform, as prosecutors’ “fear of collusion” has turned the law into a tool for incrimination, it said, adding that judges often arbitrarily order detention by copying and pasting documents, changing only the defendant’s name.
Yesterday evening, lawyer Lin Chih-chun (林智群) said the amendment would “open a path” for criminals.
In the Kai Kai (剴剴) child abuse case for example, the amendment would have allowed for his abusive nannies to remain free and collude on their testimonies, as long as they did not flee, Lin said.
If it were to pass, the legal system would not be able to detain accomplices or missing witnesses, even if they might be colluding with the key suspect, Lin added.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan and Kayleigh Madjar
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