Former National Science Council deputy minister Hsieh Ching-jyh (謝清志), who was found not guilty of corruption in July after a legal battle that lasted for a year and a half, on Tuesday slammed the prosecutors who detained him and other former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) political leaders without charge, accusing them of assuming defendants to be “guilty until proven innocent.”
In a presentation at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, Hsieh complained that Taiwan's prosecutors use circumstantial evidence and regularly leak information to friendly media outlets to build a case against suspects.
Hsieh complained about the political aspects of the recent jailing of DPP leaders without charge. He noted that in a press conference in Tainan on the date of his indictment, prosecutor Kao Fong-chi (高峰祈) “clearly said that Mr Hsieh is a pro-Taiwan independence movement activist and in the green camp,” which had nothing to do with the charges leveled at him.
Hsieh told the Taipei Times that when Tainan chief prosecutor Chu Tsao-liang, (朱朝亮), Kao's superior, arrested him, Chu told him that the action was not because he was guilty, but “to teach him a lesson.”
Chu is now a member of the special government investigation task force in Taipei responsible for the detaining without charge of a number of former DPP officials.
Steve Yates, a Washington Asian affairs consultant and former Asia adviser to US Vice President Dick Cheney, echoed Hsieh's complaints and called on the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to rectify problems with the legal system.
Discussing his 59 days in “preventive detention” — without charge —with two other inmates in a small cell that disallowed them room to sleep lying flat, Hsieh said: “In Taiwan, the law is really reversed.”
This meant that “ prosecutors arbitrarily use circumstantial evidence to put people in prison,” and that when such cases come to trial based on such evidence, it meant that suspects were “considered guilty until
“So, the burden of proof is on the defendant rather than on the normal procedure, which is that the prosecutor has to prove guilt with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
Yates doubted that Taiwan's prosecutors were utilizing preventive detention in a way that ensured fair and appropriate treatment for the accused.
“Do the people of Taiwan believe that the same procedures used for terrorists [in other countries] should be used for a public official under suspicion and not yet proven to be involved in corruption?” he asked.
Yates said these detention measures are established procedure in Taiwan, before adding: “Because something is legal, does it mean it is appropriate or just?”
Citing the White Terror period of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, Yates called on Ma to revise and modernize the law.
Ma “should know where there is room for change,” he said.
“Given the history of politics in Taiwan, it is reasonable to raise the issue of the need for some sensitivity about the appearance of one government governed by a party that was in power during a time when the law was used for the interest of party development against [opponents] from time to time, that now there is an opportunity to improve the system and how it is applied,” he said.
Yates, an expert on Taiwanese affairs and also a former lobbyist for Taiwan in Washington, asked why it was that the most punitive aspect of the law was being reactivated after lying dormant for years.
“Why is it now being applied? ... Uncomfortably, for public perception, the targets all seem to have one thing in common, and that is membership in one political party,” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS