The legislature yesterday revised regulations to demand that public servants deprived of their positions because they hold dual nationality return the amount they earned during their term of office in the public sector.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), who sponsored the amendment to the Civil Service Employment Act (公務人員任用法), said that the revision was aimed at “cultivating loyalty among public servants.”
Public servants are barred from holding dual citizenship under the Nationality Act (國籍法) and face dismissal for violating the regulation, but there was no stipulation demanding that they pay financial compensation.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, lawmakers removed a clause from the act that disqualified people with physical disabilities from being hired as public servants despite them being qualified as prescribed by a related act.
The legislature also approved an amendment to the Criminal Procedural Act (刑事訴訟法) to provide legal protection for economically disadvantaged people and Aborigines, by requiring the mandatory presence of lawyers both when people from these groups are questioned by prosecutors and when they appear in court for trial.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jeng Tian-tsair (鄭天財) hailed the revision as a big step forward in protecting Aboriginal people’s judicial rights.
The legislature enacted the Act on Cross-Border Transfer of Prisoners (跨國移交受刑人法) to set out the legal basis for transferring prisoners between nations, including regulations pertaining to calculations on time remaining to be served and procedures for the transfer of prisoners, to ensure that the process is carried out smoothly.
According to government statistics, about 1,500 Taiwanese are serving sentences abroad, with 1,000 in China and more than 500 in Southeastern Asian countries, while Taiwan holds 492 foreign prisoners.
Under the act, the transfer of prisoners requires consent from both the prisoner’s home country and host country, while the prisoner must agree to the transfer through his or her own free will.
The legislature also required a report from the Judicial Yuan, the Ministry of Justice, the Mainland Affairs Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior on the situation of Taiwanese incarcerated in other countries.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
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