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Lawmaker, lawyer
accuse Ma of leaks and collusion
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Democratic Progressive Party
Legislator Chen Chi-mai, center, and two lawyers yesterday accuse President Ma
Ying-jeou of leaking secrets and collusion with Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was involved
in leaks of secrets and collusion with Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘)
in their meetings and telephone calls both before and after the Supreme
Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID) accused Legislative
Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) of improper lobbying, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and lawyers said yesterday.
In an interview yesterday, Ma said he met with Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and
then-Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) on Aug.
31, after being briefed by Huang about Wang’s alleged violations earlier the
same day.
The meeting came six days before the SID’s press conference on Sept. 6, at which
it accused Wang of improper lobbying.
Ma’s meetings with Huang were criticized as violating the confidentiality of an
ongoing investigation and being part of a conspiracy by Ma to remove Wang from
his position as legislative speaker.
Lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) filed a complaint against Ma and Huang Shih-ming to
the SID on Sept. 9 over the leak, but the SID closed the investigation into Ma
on Sept. 27.
Noting Ma’s remarks in the interview that he had talked to Huang Shih-ming by
telephone several times after Sept. 6, Chen said the SID’s dismissal of the case
against Ma only 18 days after receiving the complaint, and without summoning Ma
and Huang Shih-ming for questioning, was “outrageous.”
Ma and Huang Shih-ming had committed obvious collusion with their telephone
conversations after Sept. 6 as both were listed as defendants in the case, Chen
said.
A president should not talk to a prosecutor-general about a specific case, Chen
added.
“If Wang [Jin-pyng] had crossed a judicial red line with his alleged lobbying,
to quote Ma, has Ma crossed that red line as well?” Chen asked.
There is another reason that Ma should have never have contacted the
prosecutor-general in person — investigations of several cases involving the
president were also ongoing, Huang Di-ying said.
Ma is listed as defendant in cases of property crimes of unknown origin, illegal
wiretapping, leaks of secrets and cases related to the Chinese Nationalist
Party’s (KMT) assets and the Dreamers (夢想家) rock musical in 2011, the lawyer
said.
“A defendant should not contact a prosecutor at any time,” Huang Di-ying said.
If Ma and Huang Shih-ming had colluded over the telephone, Ma’s agreement to
directly confront Huang Shih-ming in court is meaningless, he said, adding that
was why Ma should pledge to take a polygraph test to see whether he was aware of
the probe before Aug. 31.
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