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Prosecutor faces judicial probe after speaking out against his superiors

HOOPLA OVER HUALIEN: By daring to go public with complaints about how the anti-corruption crackdown was being handled, Yang Ta-chih put his job at risk

By Jimmy Chuang

STAFF REPORTER

Hualien Chief Prosecutor Yang Ta-chih, who also acts as a spokesman of the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office, became the man of the week last week after becoming the first local prosecutor to criticize his superiors over the use of additional police officers in the crackdown on vote-buying during the Hualien County commissioner by-election.

"I do not have any special connection to any political heavy weights. My only backup is the law," Yang said. "I was only criticizing whatever is against justice. That is me."

Yang, a graduate of National Taiwan University's law depart-ment, passed the national exam for prosecutors and judges and began his career as a prosecutor in the Taitung District Prosecutors' Office in 1991. His 10 years of service in that office won praise from former Taitung prosecutor-general Chang Ching-yun.

Yang has enjoyed good connections with the police since his father was a police officer. His good relations with the police in Taitung as well as the public earned him the nickname "King of Taitung."

In 1995, Yang indicted a vote captain for former KMT deputy legislative speaker Yao Eng-chi on bribery charges. A few months later he was unexpectedly transferred to Taichung.

With the backing of his superiors, however, Yang fought against the order with an administrative suit and won.

He was promoted to chief prosecutor and transferred to the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office on Sept. 21, 2001. However, his promotion did not make him a happy man.

"He enjoys busting bad guys on the streets but he is not interested in high-ranking positions at all," said Yang's wife, Chiang Wen-chun, who was a classmate at university and became a prosecutor in the Taitung District Prosecutors' Office in 1992.

"Justice is everything to him. Nothing more and nothing less," she said.

Hualien Chief Prosecutor Yang Ta-chih, center, speaks to reporters last week in this file photo.

She said that Yang is planning to give up his job as chief prosecutor and apply for transfer to Taitung at the end of the year.

The uproar over Yang's comments began on July 24, when he attended a meeting at the Hualien County Police Department to discuss the crackdown. The meeting was chaired by Minster of the Interior Yu Chen-hsien and Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan.

Yu had transferred 480 police officers to Hualien to help in the anti-bribery campaign. Chen visited Hualien accompanied by Bureau of Investigation Director-General Yeh Sheng-mao and State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa, to "make sure" that everything was under control.

Yang complained during the meeting that Yu's and Chen's orders were humiliating to Hualien's prosecutors and police officers.

On July 29, Yu ordered Hualien police to begin a policy of 24-hour random roadside searches of cars on the main roads and highways as part of the anti-bribery effort.

The following day, Yang called a press conference to say that Yu's order was unconstitutional and a violation of human rights. Yang cited the Council of Grand Justices Constitutional Interpretation No. 535, passed on Dec. 14, 2001, that stated that police officers must identify themselves, present search warrants and clearly explain the purpose of their search when conducting any kind of search or raid.

The council ruled that if the police failed to do any of these, a person has the right to refuse to be searched.

Yang got into hot water over his comments as well as his means of publicizing the press conference. Yang asked the Hualien correspondent for the United Daily News, Tien Teh-tsai, to alert other reporters about the conference. Tien then asked the campaign headquarters of KMT-PFP alliance candidate Hsieh Shen-shan to help get the message out through cellphone text messaging.

On Thursday, Chen announced that he had ordered the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office to investigate Yang's press conference and the prosecutor's comments.

Chen said that while he respected Yang's right to speak out, the way he which had voiced his criticisms was inappropriate, especially the involvement of Hsieh's campaign staff.

PFP Chairman James Soong sent Yang a piece of a calligraphy that read "full guts and a sense of justice" to express his regards for Yang's outspokenness. Yang refused to accept it.