The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Friday its representative office in Switzerland showed poor judgment in handling a letter requesting judicial assistance in a case of alleged money laundering involving members of the former first family.
An official from the ministry was referring to the representative office’s method of forwarding the letter from the Swiss authorities to MOFA. The official said that the representative office received the letter, dated June 16, early last month but the correspondence did not reach MOFA until late last month.
George Liu (劉寬平), Taiwan’s de facto representative to Switzerland, the Central News Agency said that the Swiss Department of Justice sent the letter to his office via ordinary mail and did not mark it as confidential.
Liu said he therefore forwarded the letter to MOFA via the ordinary mailing process, but unfortunately, it missed the weekly post and was delayed for another week.
In the letter, Swiss authorities requested judicial assistance in probing a case of possible money laundering by former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚).
The MOFA official said that the ministry, after listening to the explanations offered by Liu and other staff members, concluded that the letter had not been deliberately delayed, but that the representative office had shown a “lack of political judgment.”
The ministry announced late on Friday night that Liu would be replaced by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hsieh Fa-dah (謝發達).
Liu, a former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator, offered to resign in June and tendered a written resignation to Foreign Affairs Minister Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) late last month.
Other personnel reshuffles included the appointment of former representative to Fiji Liu Fu-tien (劉富添) as the new representative to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, representative to Mongolia Liu Chih-kung (劉志攻) as the representative to the Czech Republic and director of Taipei Liaison Office in Johannesburg Lee Ming-liang (李明亮) as the representative to Turkey.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
Military photovoltaic projects have been found to have used Chinese-made devices blacklisted by the government, including Huawei Technologies Co routers, the Ministry of National Defense’s Armaments Bureau said on Thursday. An ongoing investigation has identified the illegal use of 128 current transformers, two routers and a data reader at the Hungchailin Army Base, Pinghai Navy Base and Tri-Service General Hospital’s Songshan branch, it said. The devices were manufactured in the Chinese factories of German solar energy equipment supplier SMA Solar Technology, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Delta Electronics Co, Chinese electronics manufacturer Huawei and Taiwanese industrial PC maker Advantech Co, the bureau said. The bureau’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
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