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2012 ELECTIONS:
Prosecutor-general denies political bias allegations
‘SELECTIVE’ PROBES: It is absolutely groundless
to say that the Yu Chang investigation constitutes a ‘political persecution’
against Tsai Ing-wen, Huang Shyh-ming said
Staff Writer, with CNA
Prosecutors looking into allegations of irregularities involving the
presidential candidates of both the ruling and opposition parties have been
doing so strictly in accordance with the law and without any bias, the nation’s
top prosecutor said yesterday.
“We have been handling the cases strictly without regard for the political
affiliation of any individual involved,” Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming
(黃世銘) said at a press conference.
He was responding to allegations by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that
he has been “selective” in his probes, only directing them against the DPP.
In the countdown to the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections, the DPP
and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have been locked in a muckraking battle,
accusing each other’s presidential candidate of irregularities during previous
terms in office.
The DPP says President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is also chairman of the KMT,
covered up a NT$15 million (US$500,000) political donation he received from
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) when he was Taipei mayor between 1998 and
2006. The DPP said the donation, made after a merger of Fubon Bank (富邦銀行) and
the then-city-owned Taipei Bank (台北銀行), was in exchange for Ma’s “sellout” of
Taipei Bank to Fubon at an unreasonably low price.
The DPP says prosecutors have turned a deaf ear to repeated accusations of
possible irregularities involving Ma.
Meanwhile, the KMT has been leveling accusations of irregularities against DPP
presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). The KMT said Tsai violated the
“revolving door” rule by accepting the chair at Yu Chang Biologics Co
(宇昌生技股份有限公司), now known as TaiMed Biologics Inc (中裕新藥股份有限公司), a few months after
she had approved a government investment in the company in her capacity as vice
premier in 2007.
Tsai’s family also made investments in the company and later sold the shares for
a total profit of almost NT$20 million, the KMT says.
The “revolving door” rule bans senior government officials from working for
private businesses under their supervision within three years of their leaving a
government post.
In response to the charges against his office, Huang said prosecutors have
already taken action to look into both cases.
“There has not been a single case we have refused to touch,” he said.
On the Fubon case, Huang said that as early as Sept. 27, after reading an op-ed
piece in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper), he
had asked prosecutors to study the case.
In a follow-up, several witnesses were questioned by prosecutors on Dec. 15, he
said.
With regard to the Yu Chang case, prosecutors have asked the National
Development Fund — the government agency responsible for making the investment —
to provide them with all the relevant documents and the individuals involved
would be questioned soon, Huang said.
However, Huang declined to say who would be questioned or when.
It is absolutely groundless to say that the investigation of the Yu Chang case
is a form of “political persecution” against Tsai, he said.
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