A special assistant to Nantou County Commissioner Peng Pai-hsien (
After questioning that went on into the early hours yesterday, prosecutors requested that the court detain Peng's special assistant Wu Cheng-hsun (吳政勳), director of the county government's policy planning unit Tsai Pi-yun (蔡碧雲) and county government advisor Pai His-min (白錫旼).
The Nantou District Court approved Wu's detention but released Tsai. Pai was also released, on NT$1 million bail.
Prosecutors said there was evidence indicating the three received kickbacks and favored certain firms in handling post-quake reconstruction projects.
Meanwhile, two other county government officials in charge of affairs relating to construction bidding underwent polygraph tests yesterday. Prosecutors did not give further details.
The investigation has centered on construction bidding and the use of quake relief funds.
Prosecutors also explained to the media yesterday the mysterious "Russian logs case."
After the quake Russia donated some 3,000 tonnes of logs to Taiwan for reconstruction. The Executive Yuan then gave 2,700 tonnes of these logs to Nantou County.
But most of these logs went missing, divisional head prosecutor at Nantou District Prosecutors' Office Hsu Sung-kuei (
He said county officials had different versions where the logs went, but so far only 30 percent of the logs have been found -- in a search the day before yesterday in Changhua (彰化). The expense of processing these logs also mystified prosecutors.
Hsu said signed county government documents show the price for processing the logs was around NT$7 million. "But the money actually paid out was more than NT$22 million," he said, adding the whereabouts of the money was being investigated.
He said even the logs found in Changhua needed further examination before it could be proved that they were the mystery Russian logs.
At an interpellation session at the county council yesterday morning, the claims of corruption were discussed by councilors.
Many councilors attacked Peng's administration, but Peng insisted he and his staff were innocent and claimed "there is political intervention in the investigation."
The independent commissioner was once a close associate of President Chen Shui-bian (
But Peng withdrew from the DPP in 1997 when he decided to run for the post of commissioner even though he wasn't nominated by the party. He won the election.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS