By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Taipei Prosecutors’ Office and a Ministry of Justice (MOJ) panel would be assisting President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration’s political purging if they cleared Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) of any wrongdoing, as reported by some media outlets, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday.
Huang has been placed under investigation by the prosecutors’ office for reporting to Ma on an ongoing investigation involving Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) alleged improper lobbying, and by the ministry panel for wiretapping the Legislative Yuan’s general line.
Several media outlets reported yesterday that the Taipei Prosecutors’ Office could clear Huang of violating the Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法) because the top prosecutor reported to Ma in the “public interest.”
The reports also speculated that the ministry panel would conclude that the Special Investigation Divison’s (SID) surveillance of the Legislative Yuan’s switchboard had been a result of “unintentional administrative negligence.”
“If the reports turn out to be true, we’ll be very disappointed in the Taipei Prosecutors’ Office,” DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told a press conference.
The public had high expectations for the prosecutors’ office, which questioned Ma, Huang, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and former Presidential Office secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) on Thursday, Gao said.
“Who gets to determine what serves the public interest and what does not?” DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said, adding that the term “public interest” is vague.
If the prosecutors’ office and the panel did make decisions as reported, they would risk playing the role of accomplices and tools of the Ma administration, Lee said.