Statement on Interpretation No. 585: Urging the Legislative Yuan to Swiftly Amend and Operate the Truth-Seeking Committee Statute in Accordance with the Judicial Yuan Justices' Interpretation

The Judicial Yuan Justices issued Interpretation No. 585 today, characterizing the Truth-Seeking Committee as an organ exercising parliamentary investigative powers and declaring certain provisions of the Truth-Seeking Committee Statute unconstitutional. The Alliance of Citizens Monitoring the Truth-Seeking Committee affirms this constitutional interpretation and calls upon the Legislative Yuan to respect the conclusion reached by the Justices, swiftly amend the statute in the spirit of this interpretation, and reorganize and operate the committee pursuant to the amended statute.

Since the passage of the Truth-Seeking Committee Statute, the Alliance of Citizens Monitoring the Truth-Seeking Committee has maintained that the statute indeed raises constitutional concerns, and thus previously urged the committee to operate with low visibility prior to the constitutional interpretation by the Justices. Now that the Justices have determined that the statute is indeed unconstitutional, the Alliance calls upon the committee to cease operations as of today, and to resume operations only after the Legislative Yuan amends the law in accordance with this interpretation and reappoints the committee members.

Furthermore, the Alliance of Citizens Monitoring the Truth-Seeking Committee believes that since Interpretation No. 585 characterizes the committee as an organ under the Legislative Yuan exercising parliamentary investigative powers, political parties across the ruling and opposition spectrum should respect this. If opposition parties still believe that independent prosecutorial powers should be established to investigate the March 19 incident, the Alliance hopes they will refer to the arguments in the Alliance's October 7 statement and swiftly support amendments to the Court Organization Act to establish a parliamentary consent requirement for the Prosecutor-General and a special investigation system, thereby ensuring that prosecutors can operate independently in major cases and bringing the truth of the March 19 incident to light.

Press Contacts

Hung Yu-hung, President of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights / President of the Society Kao Yung-cheng, Attorney-at-Law, Executive Director of the Judicial Reform Foundation