Amendments to the Regulations of Audio Recording in Court and Their Use and Preservation (法庭錄音及其利用保存辦法) are aimed at protecting the rights of defendants, Judicial Yuan senior officials said.
The amendments ensure that video footage, audio recordings and written court transcripts of cases where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty or life imprisonment are stored permanently and that such material is made available to defendants on request, officials said.
Under the amendments such material is to come under the purview of the Archives Act (檔案法), Article 11 of which states: “Permanent records shall be transferred to the central archives authority-in-charge. The regulation governing such transfers shall be drafted by the central archives authority-in-charge and to be approved by the Executive Yuan.”
The amendments would enhance transparency of the judiciary system, improve the quality and efficacy of court proceedings, increase public trust in legal institutions, and also protect the rights of defendants and lawyers, officials said.
A senior judge, speaking on request of anonymity, said the new measures would allow more access to court audio and video recordings, because presiding judges in the past have mostly denied the requests of defendants’ legal teams to inspect this kind of material.
He said this led many people to believe that judges were trying to evade public scrutiny of court proceedings.
The judges’ refusal to allow access to recordings was due to a genuine concern that opening up court documents would lead to the leaking of personal information, he said.
The judge said he believed the potential for such event to occur would reduced following the amendments, as anyone who distributes audio or video recordings taken in court, or uses them in illicit ways, can be punished with a maximum of three months in jail, or a fine of NT$30,000.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A court has approved Kaohsiung prosecutors’ request that two people working for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Dai-hua (林岱樺) be detained, as a probe into two cases allegedly involving her continues. The request was made on Friday, after prosecutors raided Lin’s two offices and the staffers’ residences, and questioned five on suspicion of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪汙治罪條例). The people included the directors of Lin’s Daliao (大寮) and Linyuan (林園) district offices in Kaohsiung, surnamed Chou (周) and Lin (林) respectively, as well as three other staffers. The prosecutors’ move came after they interrogated Lin Dai-hua on Wednesday. She appeared solemn following
RSS