Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) said yesterday that he gave a NT$1 million bribe to Kaohsiung District Court President Tsai Wen-kuei (蔡文貴) but that Tsai did not help him in return.
"I have good reason to believe that Tsai was not satisfied with the amount of bribe money so my case was wrapped up within only nine months," Chu said in a press conference yesterday.
On Sept. 25, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court verdict sentencing Chu to 22 months in jail for buying votes in the Dec. 1 city council election.
In addition to this case, Chu faces charges he bought votes for NT$5 million each during last year's city council speakership election.
According to Chu, while he and his wife, Wu Te-mei (
Chu said Lee promised that Wu would be released in exchange for a payment of NT$10 million. After negotiation, the deal was made for NT$5 million.
When Chu heard about the deal, he asked his friend Wang Feng-chuan (
According to Wang, "Lee immediately gave me Tsai's cellphone number and Tsai met me and my wife in his office at 4pm on Dec. 30," Wang said. "Lee did not show up during our meeting with Tsai."
Wang said that Tsai asked them to hire a lawyer for Chu and Wu but the bribe money wasn't mentioned. Lee called him after they left Tsai's office, however, and asked him to pay the money to Tsai's wife at Kaohsiung's Summit Hotel.
"However, the woman said she was not Tsai's wife," Wang said.
Wang said that he tried to call Tsai because Wu was not released within 10 days as promised, but he failed to reach Tsai.
Wang stopped trying to contact Tsai as Wu was released in another seven days.
"I think Tsai owes the public an explanation," Chu said.
When approached by reporters, Tsai confirmed that he met Wang and his wife but denied the bribery allegation.
Tsai said that he does not know any Lee Bing-nan and that the only reason he met with Wang and his wife was because Wang claimed to be a representative for Chu and he wanted to encourage Wang and Chu to believe in justice.
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