The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday pledged to reinstate the special investigation division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and strictly oversee the government’s implementation of the death penalty as part of judicial reforms it plans to introduce in the new legislative session, which starts tomorrow.
Incoming KMT legislator-at-large Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), formerly a prosecutor and New Taipei City legal affairs bureau director, said the caucus would continue to push for the reinstatement of the special investigation division despite opposition from the Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan People’s Party.
“My idea is simple: Treat good people better and treat bad people worse. Prosecutors have been so burdened by their workload they do not have time to handle major cases in the same way the nation did when it had the special investigation division,” Wu told a news conference at the KMT’s headquarters in Taipei.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The KMT caucus would also propose that a cap on prison sentences be extended from 15 years to 25 years, and that additional jail time for specific aggravated offenses be raised from 20 years to 30 years, he said.
The government should give judges the option to mete out life sentences without parole, and establish stricter criteria to scrutinize parole applications from inmates or requests to serve their sentences in minimum-security prisons, he said.
Wu said that he would closely monitor the Ministry of Justice’s implementation of death penalties.
The ministry has not enforced the Regulations for Executing the Death Penalty (死刑執行規則) for a long time, which is a clear case of the executive branch intervening in the judicial branch, he said.
The KMT caucus would address rising incidents of fraud, and gun and drug trafficking in the draft technology investigation act (科技偵查法) and seek separate sentences for manufacturing, transporting and selling drugs, he said.
The caucus would also propose amendments to the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法), Culture and the Arts Reward and Promotion Act (文化藝術獎助及促進條例), Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries Act (文化創意產業發展法) and the Cultural Fundamental Act (文化基本法) to better preserve cultural assets, increase funding for cultural development and relax regulations on corporate sponsorships in cultural and creative industries, incoming KMT legislator-at-large Lin Chien-chi (林倩綺) said.
The caucus previously proposed introducing absentee ballots, amendments to the Budget Act (預算法) and postponing the retirement of the Jinshan, Guosheng and Ma-anshan nuclear power plants.
Meanwhile, the KMT yesterday elected legislator-elect Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) as its new caucus whip and Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) as the caucus’ new secretary-general.
Fu’s first task as the caucus whip is to ensure that incoming KMT legislator-at-large Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) would be elected legislative speaker and deputy speaker respectively at the start of the new legislative session.
Legislators who skip the vote, vote for other candidates or vote incorrectly would be subject to the strictest party discipline, Fu said.
“All KMT legislators are united and have clearly indicated that they would support Han and Chiang,” he said.
“All legislators must be present and cast their votes. Those who fail to do so would receive the strictest discipline from the party,” he added.
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
President William Lai (賴清德) should backpedal from his new “two-state theory” and return to the “one China” principle in line with the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, to foster and rebuild mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday. Hsiao made the remark after the Chinese government on Friday revealed guidelines saying that its courts, prosecutors, and public and state security bodies should “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession crimes by the law, and resolutely defend national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.” The Democratic Progressive Party’s “kneejerk” reaction every
URBAN HEAT: The average temperature in Wanhua District tends to be higher because it is a low-lying area, while Xinyi District is hotter because of overdevelopment, experts say Heat in the nation’s metropolitan areas is becoming increasingly difficult to dissipate due to climate change and increases in areas experiencing urban heat effects, a study conducted by National Cheng Kung University’s Building and Climate Lab (BCLab) showed. The lab used weather data collected on Saturday last week and created a temperature map, which showed high-temperature areas in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan have expanded and could soon be connected to each other. The phenomenon is similar to a 60km-long corridor near Tokyo experiencing urban heat effects, the study showed. The lab’s temperature map showed that Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), which