‘JUST ADJUDICATION’:The KMT praised the court for its ‘bravery,’ while calling on Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee Director Wellington Koo to step down
Taipei Times
Date: Nov 05, 2016
By: Jason Pan and Alison Hsiao / Staff reporters
The Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday ruled against action taken by the Ill-gotten Party Assets
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Administration and Management Committee Director Chiu Da-chan speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Settlement Committee to freeze bank accounts belonging to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The ruling came after the KMT last month applied to the court to lift the freeze, which the party said led to financial difficulties and forced it to borrow money to pay the salaries of nearly 800 party employees for September and last month.
The committee was set up by the Cabinet after the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) cleared the legislature in July and took effect in August.
The committee in September froze a KMT bank account over the issuance of 10 checks worth a collective NT$520 million (US$16.52 million) immediately after the legislation — which prohibits political parties from disposing of assets presumed to have been obtained illegally — was promulgated.
Yesterday’s ruling said there were questions about the legality of the administrative injunction, as it lacked some of the legal requirements needed to freeze the KMT’s bank accounts, and therefore the committee’s action might have violated provisions in Article 9 of the act. [FULL STORY]
