Prosecutors yesterday dismissed charges against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) in a defamation case stemming from the alleged speculative acquisition and sales of military dependents’ housing by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate Jennifer Wang (王如玄).
Wang became embroiled in allegations over her real-estate dealings during the heated election campaign in November last year. Her pairing with KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) lost the Jan. 16 election.
Wang filed a defamation suit against Tuan on Dec. 2, after Tuan accused Wang and her husband, former Judicial Yuan Department of Government Ethics director Huang Tung-hsun (黃東焄), of using their connections to acquire and to sell military housing units, which have restrictions on transactions.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that Tuan had requested the details of Wang’s real-estate transactions from the Control Yuan and the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office, and that the documents had formed the basis of his allegations.
Prosecutors ruled that Tuan had not defamed Wang, because he had checked and verified the information he obtained, while the details indicated that Wang had been involved in deals over 14 military housing units.
Prosecutors said that according to their investigation, Wang had purchased 12 military housing units from 1995 to 2009, and was involved in two other units without completing a deal.
The prosecutors said that there was no illegality involved in any of Wang’s real-estate transactions.
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
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
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
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