Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) yesterday launched an investigation of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for alleged abuse of power and interference in the judiciary over his administration’s probe of a prosecutor who indicted Ma on corruption charges when he was Taipei mayor.
The Control Yuan said in a statement that Chen intends to determine whether Ma went beyond his constitutional authority and interfered in the judiciary when he took action against High Prosecutors’ Office Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (侯寬仁) after being sworn in as president in 2008.
Chen also plans to investigate whether then-minister of justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) was biased against Hou and whether office prosecutors responsible for an internal probe into Hou’s handling of Ma’s corruption case were influenced by the executive branch, the statement said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Chen said he plans to interview Hou, Ma and Wang.
The Control Yuan was referring to Hou’s indictment of Ma in February 2007 over an alleged misappropriation of NT$11 million (US$376,313 at the current exchange rate) from Ma’s special allowance during his eight-year tenure as Taipei mayor.
Hou had appealed two lower courts’ not-guilty verdicts, until the Supreme Court made the ruling final in April 2008.
In January 2008, Ma filed a lawsuit against Hou, accusing him of malfeasance for fraudulently misrepresenting Ma’s witness statements. Hou was found not guilty.
In January 2010, Ma’s lawyer, C.V. Chen (陳長文) wrote an op-ed calling on the Ministry of Justice to seek compensation from Hou for what he called negligence in the handling of a 1997 fraud case.
Ma later reportedly instructed Wang to read the article and “clarify the matter.”
A month later, Wang asked the office to look into Hou’s handling of Ma’s witness statements.
When the office cleared Hou of any wrongdoing, Wang pressed the issue until the prosecutor was reprimanded.
Former deputy minister of justice Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) also made similar accusations against Ma in 2013.
Ma’s office yesterday said that C.V. Chen’s op-ed listed a number of suggestions for the judiciary, citing as an example a Control Yuan probe that found Hou guilty of several irregularities when handling the fraud case, which had been closed by the time the article was published.
“During his time as president, Ma often referred criticism and suggestions from various sectors of society to his Cabinet members, in the hopes that they could listen to public opinion and factor it into their policymaking process,” Ma’s office spokeswoman Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said.
Hsu said that if Chen Shih-meng equated listening to public opinion with interference in an individual judicial case, or launched the investigation into Ma only for the sake of doing so, his actions were bound to meet with public criticism.
Additional reporting by CNA
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
‘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
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