Scuffles broke out as police interrupted a hunger strike by the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) candidate for the commissionership of Taoyuan County yesterday afternoon.
DPP candidate Cheng Po-ching (
The VCD reportedly contains slanderous claims against Cheng's opponent in the Taoyuan County commissioner race, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Chu Li-lun (
Police ordered Cheng and his supporters to leave because they had not applied for permission from the Taoyuan police to hold the gathering.
Scuffles broke out between police and Cheng's supporters when police tried to pull the candidate and a number of his supporters away from the prosecutors office. No injuries were reported.
Before Cheng left the prosecutors office, he accused the Taoyuan prosecutors of being biased and colluding with Chu to help the KMT candidate win re-election in Saturday's local elections.
Cheng also accused Chu and the Taoyuan prosecutors investigating the VCD case of violating the Election and Recall Law (
Lin Yi-fang (
The VCD insinuates that Chu had had affairs with several women, including his former secretary.
"Lin's phone records indicate that he has had more than 200 phone conversations with Taoyuan residents, some of whom have close relations with Cheng or members of Cheng's election headquarters," John Chang (張進豐), a spokesman for the Taoyuan County Prosecutors Office, said yesterday.
Chang said that prosecutors had asked Cheng to report to them yesterday as a witness to clarify the matter, and that he was not being accused of anything.
Cheng did not report to the prosecutors yesterday.
Chang said that the VCD investigation is being carried out strictly according to the available evidence.
Lin yesterday described the matter as a "cultural battle between Chinese supremacists and Taiwan consciousness."
He said that the VCD is an unedited piece of work, and that he had not yet decided whether to release it before Saturday's elections when prosecutors started their crackdown.
Lin's lawyer, Stephen Lee (李勝雄), yesterday called on the Ministry of Justice to investigate whether Taoyuan prosecutors have violated the penal code and abused their power.
He also requested that Taoyuan prosecutors and the District Court transfer the case to somewhere else to avoid political interference from the Taoyuan County Government.
Meanwhile, pan-green camp lawmakers yesterday threw their support behind Lin.
DPP Legislator Trong Chai (
From a legal point of view, Chai said, prosecutors should not have arrested Lin before the VCD had been released.
"We would like to know why Next Magazine and the electronic media are allowed to expose scandals, but not this VCD," Chai said.
"Prosecutors have clearly applied double standards in the matter and their actions have seriously sabotaged freedom of the press and freedom of speech," Chai said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union caucus whip David Huang (黃適卓) asked whether prosecutors had "selectively" adopted heavy-handed tactics in the case.
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