31 charged over KMT-led recall campaign forged petitions in New Taipei

Taipei, June 24 (CNA) Prosecutors in New Taipei on Tuesday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers.

The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them.

According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe.

Among those indicted was KMT New Taipei City Branch Secretary-General Chen Chen-jung (陳貞容), who is currently being held and whose case will be transferred to the New Taipei District Court, the prosecutors said.

Three other senior officials from the KMT's New Taipei branch were also charged -- party secretaries Chu Pei-yi (朱蓓儀) and Lin Chien-yi (林建鎰), as well as Kuo Sheng-hsiung (郭勝雄), KMT party secretary and head of general affairs for the city.

The list of those indicted also includes KMT Banqiao District party chief executive officer Hsieh Ching-jen (謝慶認) and Banqiao District party committee chairperson Chiu Hung-pin (邱宏濱).

The 31 individuals -- connected to KMT organizations in 25 out of 29 districts across New Taipei -- face charges of document forgery and violations of the Personal Data Protection Act, according to the prosecutors.

Recall campaign convener Wang Yu-jen (王昱人) and the primary person who proposed the recall for Su Chiao-hui, Tan Chen-yao (譚鎮耀), were also among those indicted for their roles in the recall efforts, prosecutors said.

However, Tsai Cheng-jui (蔡承睿), Hsu Wei-hao (徐偉豪) and Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), identified by prosecutors as the primary or secondary proposers of the recall campaigns against the DPP lawmakers, were not indicted.

The prosecutors office said an additional 19 people, including volunteers and associates of those indicted, were granted deferred prosecutions.

The indictments on Tuesday follow a second wave of searches in April that targeted KMT offices in New Taipei, including its Banqiao and Sanchong district branches.

At the time, Chen was ordered detained by the New Taipei District Court, while other KMT officials, including Chu Pei-yi, Lo Ta-yu and Tsai Kan-tzu, were released.

Under the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, voters can seek to recall lawmakers by submitting joint-signature petitions to the Central Election Commission (CEC) in two phases before a district-wide vote can take place.

The New Taipei indictments are part of several investigations into alleged recall campaign signature forgeries, with similar cases involving KMT members in Taipei, Keelung, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other municipalities across Taiwan.