By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday accused prosecutors of leaking information about an ongoing investigation and urged the Ministry of Justice to probe the matter.
The Chiayi Prosecutors’ Office and the Kaohsiung Prosecutors’ Office, which mobilized more than 400 investigators for raids and investigations into DPP Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) and DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文), a former Chiayi county commissioner, had violated the principle of not discussing cases under investigation, DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told a press conference yesterday.
Chang and Chen were detained on corruption allegations linked to a herbal medicine biotech park project in Chiayi County, but were later released on bail.
The prosecutors’ offices were suspected of leaking information to TV political commentators and the press because a political commentator had predicted the raids days before the investigation, DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said.
The leaks were likely an attempt by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to persecute political enemies and divert public attention from the Lin Yi-shih (林益世) corruption scandal, DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said.
“This vicious practice will only hurt people’s confidence in the judicial system, whose neutrality has been questioned for a long time,” Chao said.
Chao and DPP Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) both urged the ministry to investigate the leak and said they did not rule out demanding a report from the ministry on the leak during the new legislative session.