The Control Yuan on Tuesday reprimanded the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office for neglecting to crack down on one of its own prosecutors who has allegedly been involved in conspiracy to commit murder, interference with police duties and other criminal activities.
In a report published by the Control Yuan, the Kaohsiung Police Department was also reprimanded for failing to report the interference by prosecutor Yen Han-wen (顏漢文) on disputes between law enforcement officials and members of the public from 2011 to 2013.
The probe was conducted by Control Yuan member Kao Feng-hsien (高鳳仙), who documented the criminal cases Yen was involved in, including a conviction last year on a 2011 murder plot against the abbot of Jinshan Temple (金山寺) in Kaohsiung.
In August last year, a district court found Yen guilty of hiring a man to run down the abbot with a car in an attempt to make the incident look like an accident and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. The court said that Yen was trying to take over the temple’s property and its lucrative funeral service business.
The Control Yuan’s report said that in a separate incident, Yen and an accomplice bought three handguns for a hired assassin to kill the abbot, but the abbot escaped with bullet wounds to his left arm.
Citing several other illegal activities in the report, Kao said, “Yen is the most violent prosecutor in our nation’s history.”
Kao said the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office had already received complaints of Yen’s interference with police work in 1999, but did not pursue the allegations and covered up the complaints by superficial investigations, stating “there was no evidence of illegal activity.”
From 2011 to 2013, Yen used his authority as a prosecutor to order police officials and inspectors at Kaohsiung precincts to stop investigating a number of drunk driving and public disorder cases, Kao said.
“Police officers and inspectors failed to report Yen’s interference to their respective government ethics offices. Therefore, the Kaohsiung Police Department has been negligent in carrying out its supervisory responsibilities,” Kao said.
The reports said that from 1990 to 2011, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office gave Yen the highest rating in its year-end performance evaluation 13 times.
“The prosecutors’ office responsible for Yen either did not know of his criminal activities, or chose not to do anything about it. There was clear dereliction of its supervisory duties,” Kao said, as the reprimands were announced.
The report on Yen came after the release of survey results on Monday, showing that a record-high 84.6 percent of respondents do not trust the objectivity and fairness of judges and 76.5 percent of respondents do not trust the objectivity and fairness of prosecutors.
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