Controversial cases raise questions on Supreme Court

Robert Tsao, one of the island's biggest semiconductor industry gurus who founded the contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), fired a tirade against the Supreme Court for ordering a retrial after he was acquitted by the High Court.

In another case, Chen Che-nan, a former deputy presidential secretary-general, received a much more lenient sentence in a retrial of his corruption case at the High Court. The retrial, of course, was mandated by the Supreme Court.

Chen's case is particularly sensitive following the recent arrests of three High Court judges accused of taking bribes from ex-Legislator Her Jyh-hui. Two of them were on a panel of judges that acquitted Her of corruption charges earlier this year.

A commentator, in an article published in the United Daily News on Wednesday, described the judges in Chen's case as “brave” — a remark not without a sense of sarcasm.

The commentator did not mean to accuse the judges of taking bribes, but mainly questioned their judgment and interpretation of the facts.

But in both Chen's and Tsao's cases — and many others — we can see an absurd side of the legal system — absurd at least in the eyes of laymen like us.

Chen was charged with corruption for taking NT$6 million from a businessman, Liang Po-hsun, who was seeking his help to “settle” a lawsuit.

The district court convicted him of corruption, and gave him 12 years. The high court later upheld the verdict, but reduced the sentence to nine years.

His case went to the Supreme Court, which ordered a retrial on the grounds that his capacity as a top aide to then-President Chen Shui-bian might not necessarily have played a role in his taking the money.

The High Court on Tuesday concluded the retrial, convicting Chen of a lesser charge and sentencing him to only seven months.

The judges, accepting the Supreme Court's argument, ruled that it was a case of fraud, rather than corruption, as Chen only lied to Liang without any evidence showing that he had actually tried to help him settle the lawsuit.

In Tsao's case, he has been on trial over his company's allegedly illegal investment in China-based foundry Hejian Technology.

He was acquitted by both the district and High Courts, but the supreme court ordered a retrial.

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