President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will attend a hearing at the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office next Wednesday to serve as a witness in a vote-buying investigation.
"President Chen has received the subpoena, which asks the president to attend the closed-door interrogation on Jan. 14 at 9:30am," Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) said.
"The president immediately decided to cancel all activities in his original schedule for that day and will be present at the interrogation," Huang said.
On Tuesday, Hualien prosecutor Lee Tzu-chun (李子春) issued a subpoena to Chen in the president's capacity as the DPP chairman, ordering him to assist in the investigation into a campaign promise made by the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP's) candidate for the Hualien County commissioner by-election You Ying-lung (游盈隆).
You said on July 27 last year that the DPP would provide a monthly stipend to Aboriginal communities leaders if he won the election.
"Though President Chen only served as a campaigner and had no connection to any particular campaign promise, he will do what he is asked of by the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office," Huang said.
Huang also read a statement from the Presidential Office stating that during the by-election Chen had carried out his presidential duties in the correct and proper manner.
The summons is the first ever delivered to a head of state in Taiwan.
"Since the subpoena ... is a legitimate procedure, President Chen, who is a firm advocate of judicial reform, is willing to show his respect to the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office," Presidential Office Secretary General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) said at a press conference.
"We respect the legal system and will honor our obligation to abide by the rules," Chiou said. "But this do not mean we see the subpoena as a reasonable move [by the prosecutors' office."]
Chiou refused to comment on whether the subpoena would affect the presidential election campaign, saying that such an unexpected development was not on the DPP's campaign schedule and therefore it was difficult to make an evaluation.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS