Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taipei judge demoted for saying Chen Shui-bian did not get a fair trial

Michael Richardson

Chen Shui-bian before his imprisonment
Photo credit: ATF/Getty

Su-Lin District Court in Taipei was led by Chief Justice Hong Yin-hua until an interview with the judge was published in the Liberty Times where she said that Chen Shui-bian did not get a fair trial. Chen, the former president of the Republic of China in-exile, is now serving a lengthy prison sentence for alleged corruption.

Is Chen Shui-bian Being Made a Surrogate Scapegoat for Taiwan? Part II of III

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

A new violation then took place. While Chen was jailed without charges, his chief defense lawyer tried to visit him; he was denied privacy with Chen. The alleged reason was that Chen needed to be prevented from working deals, though in this several year old case if deals were to be worked they would have long been established. Again it was a basic violation of prisoner’s rights of due process and attorney-client privilege. At heart, in addition to punishing Chen, prosecutors wanted to know what Chen's defense strategy would be; it was similar to illegal wire-tapping but even worse and more blatant. Two prosecutors had to be present at all times and if they missed anything, the sessions were also videotaped. This violation of prisoner rights was taken to court and found to be illegal. However even after it was found illegal since it would still take two months for the paper work of the court's decision to go through the system, the prosecutors persisted in their illegal listening until the paperwork cleared. Apparently they needed to stack the deck; their premature boast that they would get a conviction, was taking a nefarious effect.

Farmers protest aqueduct

Taipei Times

A protester from Changhua County smears his face with mud yesterday during a demonstration outside the Executive Yuan against the fourth phase of the Central Taiwan Science Park development project.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times

Hundreds of farmers from Changhua County yesterday rallied outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei, urging the government to fulfill a pledge to stop the construction of an aqueduct that would divert water from crops to a science park.

“Stop the water robbery right now,” the 300 farmers — mostly from Changhua County’s Sijhou Township (溪州) — and their supporters shouted in anger.

Is Chen Shui-bian Being Made a Surrogate Scapegoat for Taiwan? Part I of III

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

There are crimes and then there are crimes; there are trials and then there are trials; there are standards and then there are standards; unfortunately, however, there are also double standards. These concepts have all come into play in the complex and twisted corruption case of Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian. This is a case that will have few winners and justice will be lucky if it is even half served, for at heart, what is on trial here is more than just Chen himself though he certainly is. On trial is the legacy of a one-party state system of corruption and double standards, a party where some still carry the bitterness and vindictiveness of lost entitlement and unrealized dreams, a nation that struggles to emerge from a belabored past that includes a lack of transitional justice, stolen state assets, and finally the complicity and betrayal of lost ideals on all sides. If that is not enough, on trial may even be the after effects of a hybrid culture on Taiwan trying to adjust to the realities and differences of a post-modern judicial world.

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