An amendment to the Legislators’ Conduct Act (立法委員行為法) to impose more severe punishment on legislators who commit serious crimes was initiated by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers.
The current Legislators’ Conduct Act requires final verdict and could be appealed through the three court circuits, DPP Legislator Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) said, adding that if convicted, lawmakers could be given prison sentences and deprived of their rights and duties.
It is very different from the Local Government Act (地方制度法), which states that a mayor or county commissioner would be suspended from office upon conviction in the first ruling by a district court, Lee said.
Photo: Taipei Times
“By contrast, legislators found guilty of corruption or other serious crimes can still file for an appeal and would not be suspended from office even if they are convicted in the first and second rulings,” he said.
“We see legislators who have been found guilty of serious crimes stay on the job; in the legislature, they could challenge or castigate officials of Judicial Yuan and Ministry of Justice... Most of the public find it very hard to accept such a situation,” Lee said.
Lee said he proposed to amend Article 7, Item 1 of the Legislators’ Conduct Act to stipulate suspending a legislator from office when they are convicted of corruption, engaging in organized crime, colluding with a foreign state or sedition.
When convicted in the first ruling, they would be given prison sentences, Lee said, adding that “misuse of public power for private profit” would require a conviction in a second ruling.
Those would also apply to convictions of serious crimes that impose the death penalty, life in prison, or those with at least a five-year sentence, he said.
If a legislator is found guilty in the first ruling, they would be suspended from office and would be placed in judicial detention or on the wanted bulletin depending on the proceedings of the criminal prosecution, he said.
A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator who declined to be named opposed the proposed amendment, saying that the DPP has ignored the principle of “presumption of innocence.”
The reason that Taiwan would still need to have the three-circuit court system is to prevent wrongful convictions, the KMT lawmaker said.
“The proposed amendment aimed to focus on rooting out the evils of corruption by officials, but actually it showed the ambition of the DPP to undermine the justice system,” the KMT lawmaker said, adding that the judiciary was working to prosecute opposition parties, but gave lenient treatment when prosecuting members of the ruling DPP.
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