Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) lawyer filed a lawsuit yesterday against Taipei District Court Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) and two other judges involved in Chen’s corruption trial, accusing them of abuse of power.
Chen’s office issued a statement criticizing Tsai, the presiding judge, and Hsu Chien-hui (徐千惠) and Wu Ding-ya (吳定亞) for violating the law and Constitution for forming what it called “an illegal joint-decision court” to gain authority over Chen’s cases.
The trio abused their power by illegally detaining Chen, the statement said, infringing upon articles 125 and 28 of the Civil Code, adding that the detention was a pretext to retaliate against Chen after he denied any wrongdoing and refused to plead guilty.
Last month, the court extended Chen’s detention for a third time. In the ruling, the judges reiterated several of the reasons cited in their previous detention rulings.
Among the reasons mentioned were that Chen would collude with witnesses, destroy evidence or try to abscond. The court also cited Chen’s “interference” with the case by talking to the public through friends and colleagues who visited him at the detention center.
Chen has been held at the Taipei Detention Center since last December.
He is suspected of money laundering, accepting bribes, forgery and embezzling NT$15 million (US$450,000) during his presidency.
His wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), was indicted in 2006 on charges of embezzling NT$104 million from the presidential “state affairs” fund.
Chen was declared a defendant in the case shortly after his presidential term ended on May 20 last year. He could not be charged earlier because of presidential immunity.
Chen and Wu are also accused of accepting NT$100 million in bribes and US$6 million in connection with a land procurement deal, as well as US$2.73 million in kickbacks to help a contractor win a tender for a government construction project.
The couple’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) have pleaded guilty to the charges against them. Prosecutors have rejected the couple’s plea-negotiations.
Chen Shui-bian has denied all the charges and accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration of “political persecution” and of waging a “political vendetta” against him to curry favor with China.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
RSS