Former Hsinchu mayor Tsai Jen-chien (蔡仁堅), erstwhile boyfriend of the one-time Hsinchu City Bureau of Cultural Affairs chief Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳), was yesterday issued with a summons to go to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office.
Meanwhile, in the Legislative Yuan yesterday, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) vehemently asserted his innocence on charges made by some lawmakers that he, because he is a friend of Tsai's, may have interfered in the investigation into the secret filming of a sex VCD.
The summons requires that Tsai report to prosecutors as a potential witness in that investigation.
"The reason why we are summoning him as a `potential witness' instead of as a `witness' is that other than Kuo Yu-ling (
Kuo, a "spiritual growth" instructor at a religious-healing center called Avatar, has admitted to prosecutors that she installed the equipment that made the VCD possible, but said that she acted on the orders of somebody else whom she has refused to name.
Chen said the task force's current focus is on identifying the primary culprit in the case and to establish the whereabouts of the original tape. Investigators have obtained Kuo's telephone records and notebooks and found the name and telephone number of Tsai among them.
"On the basis of what we have established," Chen said, "prosecutors believe there is more than a good chance that there might be more than one original tape and that the main culprit still possesses them. Tsai might know this person or be able to provide more clues to help us figure out who it is.
"But don't get me wrong," he continued. "Tsai's summons does not mean that he will be treated as a witness or suspect. Prosecutors need him to clear up certain questions to which, obviously, current evidence suggests he could be key."
He said that the summons would notify Tsai to attend the prosecutors' office at an appointed time, which he was not at liberty to divulge, before this week comes to an end.
Meanwhile, answering questions at the Judicial Committee of the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, Minister Chen said that in the investigation of cases prosecutors are no longer influenced by politics.
"Unconfirmed information and rumors, on the other hand, can affect an investigation," he said.
"Many people have suspected me of interfering due to my friendship with Tsai," Chen said. "Actually, that was a malicious rumor and the truth is that I have never been involved in the investigation. That is our prosecutors' job and, at the moment, I think they're doing quite well."
Continuing to state his innocence, he said, "Moreover, this is just an ordinary criminal case. I don't believe that any politician would interfere in a case like this."
"What makes you believe that any government official would speak for a former city mayor and get involved in a case like this?" he said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS