Statement by the Judicial Reform Foundation Regarding Recent Judicial Integrity Scandals

According to reports, former Yunlin District Prosecutors Office prosecutor Hsu Wei-yu (徐維嶽), who previously handled the professional baseball gambling case, was detained and barred from visitors and communication by the Yunlin District Court over allegations involving four counts of accepting improper benefits and leaking secrets. Prosecutors and investigators discovered that Hsu allegedly abused his authority to accept bribes, leaked investigative secrets, and made arbitrary arrests, illicitly profiting over NT$7 million. Additionally, Next Magazine reported that Judge Kan Ta-kung of the Civil Division of the Taiwan Chiayi District Court patronized hostess bars with bills paid by a friend, among other incidents.

The Judicial Reform Foundation believes that the handling of such unsuited judges and prosecutors should be carried out through external oversight and elimination by a government-funded private evaluation foundation (The Judicial Reform Foundation Evaluation Foundation). Because judges and prosecutors are civil servants with special status, the Constitution stipulates that they can only be removed through criminal or disciplinary sanctions. Therefore, only through an external oversight and evaluation body can the ethical conduct issues of judicial personnel in the gray zone be addressed fundamentally and effectively on a daily basis, without having to wait until illegal acts occur and evidence is clear before taking action.

The Judicial Reform Foundation has been promoting amendments to the Judges Act for a decade. The issues within the Judges Act regarding how to handle and eliminate unsuited judges and prosecutors, as well as genuinely improving the quality of their case adjudication, have always been the goals that the Judicial Reform Foundation strives to achieve. Now, the Judicial Yuan is about to complete consultations on the draft Judges Act, and the Judicial Reform Foundation also hopes that the 6th Legislative Yuan will support this bill to expedite the passage of the draft Judges Act and establish an oversight and evaluation mechanism for judges and prosecutors as soon as possible, thereby effectively preventing similar related incidents from happening again.