The High Court yesterday ordered former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Lee De-wei (李德維) to pay NT$600,000 (US$19,023) to former minister of health and welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) and former Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director-general Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) each for defamation.
Lee cannot appeal the sentence, while Hsueh and Chou can, the ruling said.
In 2022, Lee said Hsueh and Chou attempted to benefit Medigen by purchasing COVID-19 vaccines from the company.
Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times
After the investigation, prosecutors did not indict Hsueh or Chou, both of whom later filed defamation lawsuits against Lee, demanding NT$2 million in compensation.
Hsueh and Chou said that, as a legislator, Lee was aware as legislator that the vaccine effectiveness report submitted by the company was not made with CDC assistance, but he nonetheless accused the ministry of favoring Medigen with policies and the amendment of the Regulations for Approval of Specific Medicinal Products’ Manufacturing or Importing as a Special Case (特定藥品專案核准製造及輸入辦法).
They said that Lee’s suit, filed with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Nov 9, 2022, which said that Hsueh and Chou had “knowingly contravened the law” and were “despicable,” had damaged their reputations.
The incident was in the public interest, Lee said, adding that there were media reports at the time that could support his queries.
The Taipei District Court said that Lee’s defamatory comments without reasonable verification had damaged Hsueh’s and Chou’s reputations, and ruled that Lee should pay them each NT$600,000.
Hsueh and Chou appealed the ruling, and the High Court ruled that the CDC was within its authority to file for emergency authorization for the vaccines under Article 3 of the act, as well as that the CDC’s request was not related to Medigen’s own application.
CDC information compiled for its emergency authorization was based on Article 3 of the Human Subject Research Act (人體研究法), which was not related to the ministry’s amendment for the special case approval regulations, the High Court ruling said.
Lee’s accusations incorrectly linked the legal amendments and Medigen’s report submission date, misleading the public into believing that the CDC had helped draft Medigen’s report, it said.
Lee’s efforts were a deliberate attempt to undermine the public’s trust in Hsueh and Chou by smearing their reputations, it said, upholding the district court’s ruling.
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