Deputy Minister of Justice Tsai Pi-chung (蔡碧仲) is to become acting Hualien County commissioner, replacing Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁), who has been sentenced to eight months in prison for stock market manipulation, Cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said on Friday.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court rejected Fu’s appeal against the prison sentence, ruling that he must serve his term and closing the case.
Fu was relieved of his post on the same day under the Local Government Act (地方制度法), which stipulates that local government heads be removed from their positions if they are convicted of a crime that carries a prison sentence.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
In a statement, Kolas said that Tsai would leave the Ministry of Justice and officially assume the Hualien post tomorrow.
As acting county commissioner, Tsai is to ensure the continuity of local policies and maintain administrative neutrality.
Tsai, a law graduate from National Chengchi University, has extensive administrative qualifications and has served as a prosecutor in Penghu, Yunlin and Chiayi counties.
In other news, Hou Kuan-jen (侯寬仁), who in 2007 indicted then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on charges of embezzlement, was on Friday appointed as deputy director of the justice ministry’s Agency Against Corruption.
Hou had accused Ma of siphoning NT$11 million (US$357,607) from his special mayoral allowance during his time as Taipei mayor (1998-2006), but Ma was cleared of the charges in court.
Hou in 2010 received a low grade from then-minister of justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) for “inaccuracies” on affidavits in the Ma case.
The negative assessment has affected his career over the past eight years, Hou said on Friday, adding that the new appointment represents a “restoration of justice.”
He said that he did not regret taking over the Ma case, because as a member of the judiciary, one must have a sense of right and wrong.
“Cases will be handled as they should,” Hou added.
Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) on Friday also confirmed the appointment of ministry Administrative Enforcement Agency Director-General Leu Weng-jong (呂文忠) as the next Investigation Bureau director-general.
The position has been vacant since Tsai Ching-hsiang was selected to head to justice ministry in a July Cabinet reshuffle.
Leu said the appointment came as a surprise, but he is fully aware of the new responsibilities that await him.
Ahead of the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24, his first priority after taking office would be to ensure that the polls proceed without a hitch, he said.
It has yet to be announced when Hou and Leu are to take up their new positions.
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,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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