Ex-Taiwan leader not guilty in leaks case
Print Edition
FORMER Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou was found not guilty in a political leaks case yesterday, one of a series of lawsuits against him after he stepped down last year.
He was acquitted of violating the Communication Security and Surveillance Act and the Personal Information Protection Act but will face a new trial after prosecutors brought fresh leaks charges against him earlier this month.
Yesterday’s case, filed by lawmaker Ker Chien-ming, accused Ma of asking the then-prosecutor-general to leak information to him about a confidential judicial investigation in 2013.
Ma was also accused of defamation by implying that the lawmaker had sought to influence a court case which he (Ker) was facing.
The investigation was into whether the parliamentary speaker at the time — a political rival of Ma’s — had improperly influenced the case against Ker in an attempt to benefit the lawmaker.
While still in office Ma had immunity from prosecution. But since he stepped down in May last year after serving the maximum two terms, the 66-year-old has been hit with a series of lawsuits.
Ma’s Kuomintang party held power from 2008 to 2016, before beaten by Tsai Ing-wen and her opposition Democratic Progressive Party.
The KMT hailed yesterday’s ruling and urged Ker not to appeal the case to avoid “political name-smearing and wasting judicial resources.”
But Ker’s lawyer Zan Keng-goan expressed shock at the verdict and vowed to appeal.
The leaks controversy sparked a political storm in 2013 and saw two top officials resign, while protesters took to the streets to demand Ma’s resignation.
The DPP, then in opposition, compared the investigation to the Watergate scandal, as information allegedly implicating the parliamentary speaker was obtained by a wiretap on Ker’s phone.
Ma won the leadership in 2008 with the biggest landslide in Taiwan’s democratic history, as voters registered disgust at the graft scandals of his predecessor Chen Shui-bian of the DPP.
Chen, indicted after leaving office, had been serving a 20-year sentence for corruption until he was freed on medical grounds in 2015.
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