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MA-WANG SHOWDOWN:
Huang says Wang case handled appropriately
By Rich Chang / Staff reporter
Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) yesterday said the handling of
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) case is fully in accordance with the
law.
Countering accusations by Wang and the Democratic Progressive Party that the
Special Investigation Division (SID) had abused its power and broken the law in
the investigation, Huang said in a press conference late on Tuesday night that
it was only because the SID under the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office had
investigated a criminal case involving DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and
monitored his cellphone, that it had discovered alleged illegal lobbying
involving Wang.
The top prosecutor added that as prosecutors had found Wang behaving illegally,
the SID had the right to look into his actions.
“Because the SID decided Wang’s [alleged] illegal lobbying was an executive
matter, not a criminal one, we decided not to interview Wang. If we summoned
Wang for questioning, people would accuse the SID of opening a criminal
investigation in a case concerning executive wrongdoing,” Huang said.
Responding the accusation that the SID violated the law by publicizing phone
conversation texts between Wang and Ker and between Ker and High Prosecutors’
Office Head Prosecutor Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌), the top prosecutor said that
because the case is an executive matter, not a criminal one, prosecutors did not
have to abide by the principle of the gag code.
Huang said the SID definitely has a responsibility to uncover executive
wrongdoings concerning the nation’s most important officials.
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