The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday challenged the validity of a contract presented by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to prove the KMT’s acquisition of a plot of land in Taipei’s Muzha (木柵) area was legal, with the DPP describing it as a “ghost document,” unseen in previous court proceedings.
A hearing on Tuesday reviewed the KMT’s purchase of the land, which is now part of the site housing the KMT’s National Development and Research Institute, to determine whether the party had forcibly acquired the property from its former owner, Yeh Chung-chuan (葉中川).
The KMT presented a copy of a contract signed by Yeh and the party on Jan. 4, 1962, which said that a down payment of NT$50,000 would be made to Yeh when he signed it.
The contract, which the KMT said was evidence of a consensual transaction, was challenged by the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, which said the signature and stamp on the contract did not resemble Yeh’s and the contract had never been presented in previous court proceedings.
The KMT purchased the land from Yeh in 1964, but the Yeh family sued the party in 2007, accusing it of illegally seizing the property and forcing Yeh to sell the land well below the price he asked.
In the final verdict, a court in 2011 ruled in favor of the KMT, saying there was no evidence that Yeh had been coerced.
The DPP said the stamp on the contract was different from the stamp on another contract signed by Yeh and the KMT on Jan. 16, 1962, which showed that Yeh agreed to sell the land to the KMT for NT$191,100.
While the Jan. 4, 1962 contract specified a down payment, there is no mention of it in the Jan. 16 contract, the DPP said.
The discrepancy between the two contracts and the lack of a receipt for the down payment undermine the validity of both contracts, the DPP said.
Yeh’s son, Yeh Sung-jen (葉頌仁), said he had never seen the Jan. 4 contract or the stamp it bears before.
Three of the five witnesses of the Jan. 16 contract could not be found in the government’s household registration database and they were never summoned to testify, DPP Deputy Secretary-General Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said.
“These are ghost documents, ghost witnesses and a ghost stamp. How can the public be convinced the rulings were fair?” Hsu said.
KMT Administration Committee Deputy Director Lee Fu-hsuan (李福軒) said the Jan. 4 contract was not “new evidence,” but had been presented to the courts in past proceedings.
Judges even questioned Yeh Chung-chuan’s wife about her knowledge of a NT$50,000 payment — the exact amount stated on the contract, Lee said.
“Although Yeh’s wife said she did not know about the payment, that does not mean there was no such payment,” Lee said.
The stamp used on the Jan. 4 contract was legally certified and the Jan. 16 contract was a transfer of ownership document which, in the fashion of earlier decades, did not specify the transaction amount in detail, Lee said.
KMT Administration Committee director Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said the witnesses listed on the contract were real people and were KMT employees, but the assets committee had gotten their names wrong, as they are somewhat illegible.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS