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Kuo corruption case
shows judiciary ¡¥barbaric¡¦: experts
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Former minister of transportation and communications Kuo Yao-chi¡¦s (³¢º½µX)
conviction on corruption charges epitomized the judicial system¡¦s ¡§decadent,
primitive and barbaric¡¨ nature, academics told a symposium in Taipei yesterday.
Kuo¡¦s conviction on Dec. 5 was a perfect example of how helpless Taiwanese are
before the law and illustrated how every encounter citizens have with the
judiciary is similar to a game of Russian roulette because their fate is
determined by pure luck, the academics said at the forum on Taiwan¡¦s judiciary,
which was organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
The Supreme Court sentenced Kuo to eight years in prison after the Taiwan High
Court overturned previous acquittals to find her guilty of receiving a US$20,000
bribe from service industry conglomerate the Nan Ren Hu Group in 2006, while she
was supervising a development project as transportation minister.
The sentence violates the rules of evidence and of experience with insufficient
investigation, said Hsu Hui-feng (³\´f®p), a law professor at the Chinese Culture
University.
Not only was the alleged US$20,000 in bribery money never found, but the
conglomerate did not end up tendering a bid, Hsu said, adding that there was
also perjury in the case.
¡§I have no idea how the court could determine it was a corruption with so many
flaws in the case,¡¨ the professor said.
Hsu said that the validity of convictions in Taiwan ¡X in particular in
corruption cases ¡X has always been questioned since 34 of the 56 appealed
corruption cases handled by the Taiwan High Court last year ended up with
reduced penalties.
The figure means that 64 percent of the rulings handed down by the High Court
and district courts were inconsistent, Hsu added.
Lin Iong-sheng (ªL¹lª@), a researcher at the Taiwan Brain Trust thinktank, said
that ¡X along with a slew of other cases involving pan-green camp politicians,
including that of former president Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) ¡X Kuo¡¦s trial showed
that prosecutors and judges ¡§still employ illegal and dirty tricks, among them
pretrial detention and subornation of perjury, to do whatever they want.¡¨
It is ironic that the nation¡¦s television viewers are obsessed with the US crime
drama series CSI and amazed by the scientific criminal investigations it
portrays, yet have to endure so many unjust trials in real life, Lin said.
With countries like Japan beginning to work on reforming their judiciaries
toward a jury system, Wu Ching-chin (§d´º´Ü), an associate law professor at
Aletheia University, urged Taiwan to immediately engage in a similar reforms.
¡§The judicial system in Taiwan is now on the edge of a cliff. It is a do-or-die
situation for us. After all, people¡¦s lives, freedom and integrity are at
stake,¡¨ Wu said.
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