Regarding newspaper reports on questions raised by DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu about a “stack of transcripts from wiretaps on Legislative Yuan number 0972 by the Hualien District Prosecutors Office,” the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) issues the following clarification:
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1. Upon investigation, the MOJ found that the Hualien District Prosecutors Office, while investigating former legislator Tang XX’s suspected violation of the Anti-Corruption Act, wiretapped Chan XX’s cell phone 0917-xxx-597. The Office discovered that former Legislator Tang’s assistant, Huang XX, had used phone number 0972-xxx-234 to call Chan’s cell phone number 0917-xxx-597. Therefore, the Office, assuming that the number was Huang’s cell phone, requested permission to wiretap 0972-xxx-234 as well. The wiretap, which lasted from September 14, 2007, to January 4, 2008, recorded the content of no phone calls. The person in charge later found out that the number was actually that of the Legislative Yuan’s switchboard and could not be recorded. Throughout that investigation, neither 0972-xxx-233 nor 0972-xxx-235 of the Legislative Yuan switchboard was ever wiretapped.
2. The so-called wiretap transcripts reported in the newspapers involving the three wiretapped Legislative Yuan switchboard numbers 0972-xxx-233, 0972-xxx-234, and 0972-xxx-235 are all transcripts of phone calls transferred from the three numbers to wiretapped cell phone numbers. They are not transcripts of calls on the three switchboard numbers themselves.
3. In this case, the investigator in charge mistakenly considered 0972-xxx-234 to be legislative assistant Huang’s number and, accordingly, wiretapped the wrong phone. This is similar to the previous instance uncovered by the MOJ of inadvertent wiretapping of the Legislative Yuan’s switchboard number 0972. These details set the record straight on factually inaccurate newspaper reports.
4. The MOJ will instruct the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office to further investigate the mistaken wiretapping of Legislative Yuan switchboard number 0972-xxx-234 in this instance, along with other similar cases submitted to the Office previously, and to report to the Ministry for follow-up measures. In addition, the MOJ will instruct the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office to investigate all wiretapping records in district prosecutors offices in order to determine whether other similar situations exist. The combined review and investigation will prevent such errors in the future.
