The High Court yesterday ordered former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Lee De-wei (李德維) to pay NT$600,000 (US$19,023) to former minister of health and welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) and former Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director-general Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) each for defamation.
Lee cannot appeal the sentence, while Hsueh and Chou can, the ruling said.
In 2022, Lee said Hsueh and Chou attempted to benefit Medigen by purchasing COVID-19 vaccines from the company.
Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times
After the investigation, prosecutors did not indict Hsueh or Chou, both of whom later filed defamation lawsuits against Lee, demanding NT$2 million in compensation.
Hsueh and Chou said that, as a legislator, Lee was aware as legislator that the vaccine effectiveness report submitted by the company was not made with CDC assistance, but he nonetheless accused the ministry of favoring Medigen with policies and the amendment of the Regulations for Approval of Specific Medicinal Products’ Manufacturing or Importing as a Special Case (特定藥品專案核准製造及輸入辦法).
They said that Lee’s suit, filed with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Nov 9, 2022, which said that Hsueh and Chou had “knowingly contravened the law” and were “despicable,” had damaged their reputations.
The incident was in the public interest, Lee said, adding that there were media reports at the time that could support his queries.
The Taipei District Court said that Lee’s defamatory comments without reasonable verification had damaged Hsueh’s and Chou’s reputations, and ruled that Lee should pay them each NT$600,000.
Hsueh and Chou appealed the ruling, and the High Court ruled that the CDC was within its authority to file for emergency authorization for the vaccines under Article 3 of the act, as well as that the CDC’s request was not related to Medigen’s own application.
CDC information compiled for its emergency authorization was based on Article 3 of the Human Subject Research Act (人體研究法), which was not related to the ministry’s amendment for the special case approval regulations, the High Court ruling said.
Lee’s accusations incorrectly linked the legal amendments and Medigen’s report submission date, misleading the public into believing that the CDC had helped draft Medigen’s report, it said.
Lee’s efforts were a deliberate attempt to undermine the public’s trust in Hsueh and Chou by smearing their reputations, it said, upholding the district court’s ruling.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS