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SID unconstitutional,
illegitimate: experts
SYSTEMIC FAILURE? A law professor said that the
agency had become something everyone loves to hate because of the flaws inherent
in the prosecutorial system
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
From left to right, law professor
Hsu Hui-feng, lawyer Cheng Wen-lung and law professor Chen Yaw-shyang discuss
the Special Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office at a forum
held by the Taiwan Forever Association in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Special Investigation Division (SID)
of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, which has been in the eye of a recent
political storm, should be abolished because of its inherent illegitimacy and
unconstitutionality, as well as the design of the special prosecutors system,
legal experts said yesterday in Taipei.
“Let me say this: Taiwan would not become a worse place to live without the SID,
but it will become more chaotic if the division is kept,” lawyer Cheng Wen-lung
(鄭文龍) told a forum organized by Taiwan Forever Association to discuss the
increasing calls to scrap the division.
The SID has failed to accomplish its mission of probing corruption cases
involving officials at minister-level or higher since 2008, with the bribery
case involving former Executive Yuan deputy secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世)
— which was investigated after media broke the story — the only exception, Cheng
said.
The division instead focuses on prosecuting cases involving former officials of
the previous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, including former
president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), with selective investigation a prevalent
practice, he added.
There have been growing cries for eliminating the SID, which has been embroiled
in controversies related to its wiretapping of the legislature, not only because
it malfunctions and infringes on the Constitution, but also because it has
become a tool for politicians to pursue their political agendas, the lawyer
said.
Hsu Hui-feng (許惠峰), a professor of law at the Chinese Culture University, said
the division was doomed to fail because of systemic flaws.
“I would say that the SID has become an agency everyone loves to hate not
because the prosecutors in the division are incompetent, but because of the
design of the prosecutorial system and a lack of courage and justice among
prosecutors,” Hsu said.
Since the prosecutor-general — who is appointed by the president — is authorized
to designate all the SID’s prosecutors, it is inevitable that the division
acquires a political nature, he said, adding that this system gives the
president and the majority party influence over the SID.
Another serious flaw of the division is that, unlike local prosecutors’ offices
— which can be supervised by the High Prosecutors’ Office — no institution is
able to monitor the division, Hsu said.
That explained why the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) did not favor removing
Article 63-1 from the Organic Act of Court Organization (法院組織法), which
stipulates the SID’s establishment and mission, DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻)
said.
A Legislative Yuan resolution on Sept. 25 demanded that the SID stop working and
transfer its ongoing cases to local prosecutors’ offices, but the division has
refused, saying that the resolution is not legally binding.
High Prosecutors’ Office prosecutor Lu Ting-wang (呂丁旺) said it was almost
certain that the SID would abuse its authority because of the power concentrated
in it, as well as the lack of checks and balances to keep it under control.
However, Lu said that has no one to blame but itself because the division was
established in 2007 under the then-DPP government.
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