The Taipei District Court yesterday finally granted prosecutors' requests to detain China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發) chairman Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) on charges of corruption and breach of trust, after the case was transferred back and forth between the Taiwan High Court and the Taipei District Court three times.
Liu is one of the key suspects in the Zanadau Development Corp (
"Judges believed the prosecutors' evidence and their arguments that Liu had attempted to exchange information with other suspects in the case. That is why they decided to approve the prosecutors' request today," said Liu's lawyer, Chang Chuan (張權). "However, we will try to get him out by filing another appeal."
Accompanied by Chang and another attorney Chung Yung-sheng (鍾永盛), Liu arrived at the Taipei District Court around 9:20am yesterday but he did not make any comment before he entered the courtroom. He was arrested and detained immediately after the hearing yesterday.
Chung refused to comment and left the court building immediately after the hearing. Both Chang and Chung also work for former independent lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (羅福助). In addition, Chung was also former Hsinchu City Bureau of Cultural Affairs chief Chu Mei-feng's (璩美鳳) lawyer for her sex-VCD case.
The third hearing began around 10am yesterday and the court finally decided to approve the prosecutors' detention request at 8pm last night.
In addition to the argument over the detention request, Chang and Chung also filed a request to the court to assign another presiding judge to chair yesterday's hearing because Presiding Judge Lu Yen-ju (盧彥如), who heard Liu's case, is the daughter of State Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (盧仁發).However, the defense counsel's request was rejected yesterday afternoon.
"We believe that the decision is improper but we respect the court's decision. I have no more comments on that," Chang said.
For his involvement in the Zanadau case, Liu was summoned for the first time on Nov. 27 last year. After a 26-hour interrogation, he was released because the Taipei District Court rejected prosecutors' detention request on Jan. 28.
On Dec. 11, the Taiwan High Court granted prosecutors' appeal and ordered the lower court to rehear the request.
On Dec. 31, the lower court heard but again rejected the prosecutors' detention request.
After a third appeal by prosecutors, the high court granted the request and ordered the lower court to re-consider the request on Jan. 28 this year.
Today's third hearing at the lower court overturned its own previous decisions and finally granted the prosecutors' request to detain Liu.
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