20131021 Wiretapping alarms London-based group Liberty International
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Wiretapping alarms London-based group Liberty International

By Chris Wang / Staff reporter

An international alliance of political parties called for the government to respect judicial independence and the three separations of powers in its resolution, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.

“Liberty International [LI] is alarmed at the recent revelations of widespread wiretapping, carried out under flimsy legal pretexts by the Special Investigation Division [SID] of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on parliamentarians in Taiwan, notably including the Speaker of Parliament, the Opposition Whip and the Parliament’s central switchboard,” the DPP quoted the LI press release issued yesterday as saying.

The London-based LI is a federation of more than 100 political parties around the world.

In an executive committee meeting, held from Thursday to Saturday in Antigua, Guatemala, LI passed a resolution calling for Taiwan’s government to respect judicial independence and to refrain from interfering in ongoing investigations.

The resolution referred to recent political strife involving President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) for their alleged plot to remove Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).

The organization urged the Ma administration against interfering with the proper functioning of the legislative branch and to immediately undertake a comprehensive review of the laws and regulations governing the use of wiretapping, to “ensure that it is only used in accordance with internationally accepted democratic principles.”

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