A district court has found former President Ma Ying-jeou not guilty on charges of instigating leaks of confidential information and aggravated libel in a case brought by DPP lawmaker Ker Chien-ming. In their ruling, the district court judges said there was no way to prove that Ma instructed his prosecutor-general to leak information about Ker, and determined that Ma’s accusations of illegal lobbying were open to public scrutiny and did not constitute libel. After holding four months of hearings on the case, the Taipei District Court today found former President Ma Ying-jeou not guilty on charges of instigating leaks of confidential information and of aggravated libel against the plaintiff, DPP Caucus Whip Ker Chien-ming.Liao Chien-yuTaipei District Court Presiding JudgeThe defendant claimed that on the morning of September 1, he did not personally discuss this matter on a phone call with Mr. Huang Shyh-ming, and this court has found that statement credible. The plaintiff has only brought forth a record indicating that that call lasted for 88 seconds. But that does not constitute sufficient proof of what was discussed. Ker Chien-ming was disappointed after getting word of the court’s not-guilty verdict. Ker Chien-mingDPP Caucus WhipTheir grounds for finding him not guilty were that they had no way to prove that Ma Ying-jeou told Huang Shyh-ming to leak confidential information, that there was no irrefutable evidence in the form of a recording. Let me ask you this: can I go record what Ma Ying-jeou is saying? What kind of a ruling is this?Hsu Chiao-hsin, speaking on behalf of former President Ma Ying-jeou, thanked the court for its verdict.Hsu Chiao-hsinSpokeswoman for Ma Ying-jeouWe would like to thank the judges on the Taipei District Court who heard this case for clarifying the facts and issuing a legal and appropriate ruling. Ker, for his part, vowed to file an appeal against the verdict in a higher court. Though Ma may have escaped charges in the district court ruling, he’s not out of the woods yet, with the Taipei District Prosecutors Office set to pursue its own case against the former president.
