After lengthy questioning, Taichung prosecutors last night asked the district court to hold incommunicado Taichung County Council speaker Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) and vice speaker Chang Ching-tang (張清堂) on several criminal charges.
As of press time, the Taichung District Court had not yet made its ruling on whether to approve the prosecutors' request.
Yen is accused of corruption, attempted murder and banditry, while Chang is accused of corruption, the spokesman for the Central Taiwan Special Investigative Force, Prosecutor Lee Ching-yi (李慶義), said last night.
Prosecutors yesterday morning searched the Taichung County Council and the homes of Yen and Chang and questioned some 20 people.
The prosecutors said several county councilors inflated their "public relations" expenditures to take money from the council's budget.
The chairman and vice chairman are also alleged to have taken part in this.
As for the attempted murder charge, Lee declined to be specific, but local media have referred to a shooting case in 1996, when people from Yen's office fired shots on a vehicle driving around the office in Shalu (
Prosecutors suspect that Yen ordered the shooting.
The prosecution was tight-lipped on their investigative actions and findings yesterday.
Regarding the banditry charge, local media believe that the prosecutors are referring to a 1996 incident in which Yen allegedly used violence to blackmail a stock market-listed company.
Of the charges, only the county council corruption charge was "new," local media said.
Yen, however, insisted that he was innocent.
"I feel easy. I did no wrong," Yen said yesterday evening as he was being escorted by police from the Taichung County Office of the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau to the district prosecutors' office.
Asked by reporters whether he thought there were political factors behind the prosecutors' move, Yen said, "the public knows very well."
Prosecutors have also investigated a financial scandal involving the famous Chenlan Temple (
Prosecutors did not charge Yen in the case yesterday. But vice board chairman of the temple, Cheng Ming-kun (鄭銘坤); his brother, who is also the chairman of Tachia (大甲) Township council, Cheng Ming-tsung (鄭銘宗); and an official of the temple, Liu Yu-lin (劉育麟), were charged with forgery and breach of trust, prosecutor Lee said.
The three were released on bail of NT$1 million NT$200,000 and NT$500,000 respectively.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique