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.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
RSS