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Prosecutors comparing statements by
Ma, others
By Rich Chang / Staff reporter
Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming
talks to reporters after he leaves the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on
Thursday evening.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office
yesterday said it was comparing statements made by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)
and three others who were summoned on Thursday evening over allegations that
Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) had leaked details of an investigation
into a case of alleged improper lobbying by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng
(王金平).
Ma, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and former Presidential Office deputy
secretary-general Lo Chih-chang (羅智強) were subpoenaed as witnesses, while Huang
was questioned as a defendant.
The district prosecutors’ office summoned the four after several lawyers and
citizens filed lawsuits against Huang, accusing him of leaking secrets in the
Special Investigation Division’s (SID) probe when he briefed Ma on information
gathered through wiretapping involving Wang and Democratic Progressive Party
caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘).
The prosecutors summoned Ma to clarify the details of meetings he had with Huang
on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, five days before Huang called a press conference to
accuse Wang of misconduct.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ma was given plenty of time to
answer prosecutors’ questions. After the questioning, which was conducted from
8pm to 9:30pm, Ma spent more than 10 minutes reading his testimony before
signing it, the office said.
The office added that prosecutors offered the president a travel fee for coming
in to present his statement, but Ma declined, saying he traveled by foot.
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Huang Mo-hsin (黃謀信) said
prosecutors were busy comparing the four statements and the office has not
decided whether it should arrange a confrontation meeting for all parties.
Separately, Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) said the ministry’s
task force set up to investigate the wiretapping controversy has interviewed
experts from Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to learn more about technologies
involved in wiretapping.
Chen said their statements would be compared with those made by SID prosecutors,
as well as experts from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau.
Chen added that the task force had questioned SID spokesman Yang Jung-tsung
(楊榮宗) and SID prosecutor Cheng Shen-yuan (鄭深元), but it has not decided whether
to question Huang.
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