Prosecutors decide against pursuing ex-official in H5N2 bird flu case
ROC Central News Agency
2012/07/09 19:44:37
Taipei, July 9 (CNA) Taipei prosecutors decided on Monday not to indict a formal agricultural quarantine head and three other officials on charges of covering up outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza in Taiwan late last year.
Hsu Tien-lai, former director general of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine under the Council of Agriculture, and three of his co-workers were accused last December by Li Hui-jen, a documentary film director, of forgery, negligence of duty and malpractice, which Li said resulted in the further spread of the highly fatal disease in birds.
Lin's documentary "A Secret that Cannot Be Poked At" is a comprehensive record of bird flu outbreaks at central and southern Taiwan chicken farms from 2006 on.
The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said indictments will not be filed because no solid evidence was found during a months-long investigation into the case to support the accusations.
Hsu resigned on Dec. 4, one day after Taiwan recorded the first outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza, resulting in 57,500 chickens being culled in the Tainan and Changhua areas.
Prosecutors said Hsu's reluctance at meetings of quarantine officials and experts to identify the bird flu cases as being of the "highly pathogenic" variety could not be counted as the root cause of the further spread of avian influenza later.
In addition, there was also no evidence to support the charges that Hsu and others falsified documents in an attempt to cover up the flu's existence, they said.
Though the case against Hsu was closed, prosecutors said they were still probing similar charges pressed by lawmakers on March 15 against President Ma Ying-jeou and former Premier Wu Den-yih.
(By Liu Shih-yi & Bear Lee)
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