The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday echoed Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) proposal to reinstate the Special Investigation Division (SID), saying that the agency should probe what it called the “top 10 questionable cases” allegedly involving Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members.
Before it was abolished in January 2017, the division was an agency under the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office tasked with probing graft by high-ranking officials, including the president and lawmakers.
Han, the KMT’s candidate in the Jan. 11 election, claimed at the first televised presidential candidate policy platform presentation on Wednesday last week that a number of DPP officials are corrupt and that re-establishing the division is necessary to probe their crimes.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇), KMT New Taipei City Councilor Tang Hui-lin (唐慧琳) and KMT legislator-at-large nominee Wu Yi-ting (吳怡玎) yesterday voiced their support for Han’s proposal at a news conference at KMT headquarters in Taipei.
Following Han’s proposal, the KMT has received information about the “top 10 questionable cases” allegedly involving DPP members, said Lu Ching-wei (呂磬煒), editor of the KMT’s online media section.
One case questions whether former Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), who is now secretary-general of the Presidential Office, and other DPP members should be held accountable for the city’s NT$300 billion (US$9.9 billion) of debt, the KMT members said.
Other cases include establishing who was behind Kaohsiung-based Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船) defrauding the navy in a minesweeper project, identifying the intended recipient of NT$3 million in cash that DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) lost aboard a high-speed train in September, discerning who helped spread rumors about the case of self-confessed Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang (王立強) and examining an up to NT$2 trillion offshore windfarm construction program, they said.
Other items include finding out who approved a bank loan for Far Eastern Air Transport (遠東航空), which earlier this month suddenly halted operations; probing alleged use of more than NT$800 billion of Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program funding for pork-barreling; investigating how government-led Taiwania Capital Management Corp (台杉投資) used funds; and identifying the person responsible for ordering Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) to spread misinformation online that allegedly led to the suicide last year of Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), then-director-general of the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Japan, they added.
They also announced a NT$1 million reward for locating Yang.
People are welcome to post video or images on the KMT’s Facebook page that would help identify her whereabouts, Wang said, adding that Yang could claim the reward herself if she comes forward to face justice.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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