The Special Investigation Division (SID) is to be formally abolished and its responsibilities transferred back to prosecutors, the Legislative Yuan said yesterday.
The SID’s dissolution will take effect on Jan. 1, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) said.
The SID was created amid expectations that the government would be able to rein in corrupt civil servants, but in 2013, then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) illegally wiretapped a lawmaker, Yu said, adding that the SID has since become a judiciary organ not to combat crime, but to persecute people.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The legislature has abolished the SID because it had become uncontrollable, Yu said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福) said that the dissolution of a judiciary organ tasked with investigating corruption by high-ranking officials seems to send the message that the DPP is willing to tolerate such acts.
The SID should continue to exist, as normal prosecutors might not have the initiative to prosecute cases against high-ranking government officials, the KMT legislative caucus said, adding that the division would also have more time, as investigating such cases was its sole duty.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Lin also questioned amendments to Article 63 of the Organic Act for Courts (法院組織法), which formed the legal basis for the SID, and said that the amendments could not prevent politics interfering in the judiciary.
As the amended article exempts prosecutors from the constraints of Article 62, which states that prosecutors are to perform duties in their jurisdictions, if they are appointed to head investigations by the prosecutor-general, the Taiwan High Court or the attorney general of the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office, the prosecutor-general’s power as the top-ranking entity among the three leaves a loophole for political intervention, Lin said.
In other news, the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to Article 27 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) barring elected officials who step down or candidates whose nominations are invalidated by a court due to bribery from running in by-elections.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS