Lawyers defending former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) in a series of corruption cases said yesterday that while going through the video depositions of witnesses, they found a 30-minute section on one of the discs that had no sound.
Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍), one of Chen’s lawyers, expressed suspicion that the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office might have tampered with the recording to erase testimony that would have backed the defendants.
SIP Spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said the prosecutors in his division would never tamper with a recording.
The video equipment may have malfunctioned, Chen Yun-nan said.
The SIP spokesman said that he had not seen the recording in question and suspected that the soundless portion of the video could be an intermission that had been videotaped by a camcorder left running during a break in the deposition.
He said that his division would look into the matter and determine whether there was a problem with the videotape.
As for whether the disc could still be submitted as evidence, he said that was for the court to decide.
Chen Yun-nan said that in addition to the recording on the disc, the deposition had also been transcribed to ensure the accuracy of the testimony.
He said the defense counsel could always cross-examine the witness in question — Taiwan Cement Corp chairman Leslie Koo (辜成允), who prosecutors say transferred NT$300 million (US$8.81 million) in 2003 as bribes to the former president and his wife for a land procurement deal in Taoyuan County.
The prosecutors say the former president used his position to ensure the government would purchase land for the construction of a science park after Wu allegedly received bribes through the landowner.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its