Complaining the judiciary was partisan, the People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus yesterday proposed to amend the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan (司法院組織法) to allow the State Public Prosecutor-General to assign an independent prosecutor or task force to handle major cases.
The amendment would require that candidates for the post of prosecutor-general be nominated by the president and approved by the Legislative Yuan. Appointees would be restricted to one five-year term.
The PFP caucus claimed that more than 500 prosecutors had signed a petition demanding that an independent prosecutorial system be established.
"The government has wrongly given priority to several cases. The important and urgent cases are not speedily dealt with, yet the minor cases are getting immediate attention," PFP Legislator Pang Chien-kuo (龐建國) said.
"We must ask whether prosecutors are coming under pressure -- so their neutrality is questionable. It is urgent that we establish an independent prosecutorial system," Pang said.
PFP Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (
"While [PFP Legislator] Chiu Yi's (邱毅) case was expedited, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was still only summoned as a witness in the National Security Bureau case. This shows that the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] administration is protecting its supporters and suppressing its opponents," Chou said.
PFP Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (
"The DPP government has been prosecuting pan-blue supporters, even film stars Brigitte Lin (
Liu said the PFP's feeling that political prosecutions were taking place emerged after PFP legislators Feng Ting-kuo (
Liu said that Feng and Lee Ching-hua visited Central Election Commission Chairman Huang Shih-cheng (
Liu said they had done so only to suggest the commission had made the announcement illegally and that they were entitled to make the suggestion at the commission's premises.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan