The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved the nomination of Yen Da-ho (顏大和) as prosecutor-general of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, without ballots from the opposition parties. Yen was put forward by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last month.
The nomination was approved by 62 affirmative votes, reaching a majority in the 112-seat legislature.
None of the Democratic Progressive Party legislators cast ballots, with the party caucus stating that the party was not willing to endorse Ma’s nomination.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union also abstained from casting ballots. The 62 approval votes were from 61 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators and one independent.
Yen was nominated last month to replace former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), who played a controversial role in the so-called “September political strife” last year between Ma and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) after he met with the president before publicly announcing the result of a Special Investigation Division investigation and authorizing a series of wiretaps.
After his nomination was approved, Yen said that human rights should be respected in future prosecutors’ criminal investigations.
“Prosecutors will step up efforts to crack down on bribery in the seven-in-one elections in November, and the Special Investigation Division will continue to look into judges and prosecutors who are suspected of taking bribes,” Yen said.
In response to media queries on students and members of the public facing criminal investigations into the Sunflower movement and related rallies, Yen said: “The law punishes lawbreakers, regardless of their status.”
Meanwhile, Judicial Reform Foundation executive director Kao Jung-chih (高榮志) issued a statement requesting Yen to make a public pledge that he would adhere to the Constitution and not brief details of any ongoing investigations to the president and that he would only meet with the president at public occasions.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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