Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) on Tuesday volunteered to investigate the Taiwan High Court’s acquittal of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to determine whether the judges had abused the principle of judicial discretion.
As the case involves a former president and has generated controversy, it should be looked into, especially as conflicting rulings have given rise to doubt over the judges’ legal basis, Chen said.
Ma has been accused of being complicit in encouraging then-prosecutor-general Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘) to leak a transcript of a wiretapped conversation of Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) to then-premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and then-Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) in September 2013.
The wiretap was related to an ongoing investigation of Ker over alleged breaches of trust.
Ma was acquitted in the first trial, but the High Court sentenced him to four years in prison in the second trial, before acquitting him in a retrial on Friday last week.
In the latest ruling, the judges said that Ma had not abused his position as president to obtain the classified documents, nor had he instructed or encouraged Huang to leak them.
“Huang’s contravention of the law does not mean that Ma also broke the law,” the ruling said.
Ma said that the ruling upheld his innocence and clearly delineated the boundaries of a president’s executive power, which would serve as a point of reference for future presidents.
However, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, which prosecuted the case, alleged that the judges in the retrial had only summarily read through the previous indictment, rulings and evidence.
The original indictment said that Ma had illegally encouraged or ordered Huang to leak information to Jiang and Lo, neither of which were legally privy to such information, the office said.
However, the court mistakenly believed that the indictment attempted to prove the complicity of Huang and Ma, the office said.
By failing to rule on the content of the original indictment, the retrial should not be valid, as it was against the law, the office said, adding that it is mulling whether to launch an extraordinary appeal.
Meanwhile, lawyer Lin Hsien-tung (林憲同) on Tuesday brought malfeasance charges against Chang Hui-li (張惠立), the judge who presided over the High Court retrial, alleging that he wanted to exculpate Ma.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
RSS