Seven Kaohsiung City councilors will have to leave their posts within three weeks after a court yesterday upheld their convictions related to the 2002 vote-buying scandal in the election of council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (
The Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung branch also overturned a 24-month sentence against Vice Speaker Tsai Sung-hsiung (
Prosecutors last year indicted 34 councilors for accepting NT$5 million each from Chu to vote for him in the December 2002 speakership election. Of the indicted councilors, 24 were convicted.
Chu was sentenced to 42 months in prison for vote-buying in November, but he had already fled the country after being convicted of paying voters NT$500 each in a city council election earlier in December.
The court yesterday upheld the 20-month sentence for councillor Yang Min-lang (
The court reduced Kao Tzeng-ying's (
Huang Fang-jen (
Neither the councilors nor prosecutors may appeal these sentences, although the councilors can pay NT$300 per day in lieu of going to prison.
As it takes 10 days to deliver the verdicts, the councilors will have to give up their posts within the next three weeks.
Tsai had been convicted on two charges -- taking a bribe and asking colleagues to do the same. The court yesterday found him innocent of the charges, but left the option open to prosecutors to appeal the verdict on the second charge.
"The judges did not discover sufficient evidence to prove that Tsai accepted the bribe money. As a result, they decided to drop the charges against him," said Wang Kwang-chao (
Wang also said that the judges had not considered a promise by prosecutors to suspend the sentences of any councilors who admitted taking bribes.
"The judges affirmed their [the councilors'] hard work for their voters during their terms as Kaohsiung City councilors. However, the judges also believed that their accepting the bribes has brought disgrace to their titles and their voters," Wang said.
The convictions increase the likelihood that Kaohsiung will have to hold city council elections this year. If more than 14 councilors leave their posts, an election must be held. Ten will have left their posts once the seven councilors leave.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
BIG SPENDERS: Foreign investors bought the most Taiwan equities since 2005, signaling confidence that an AI boom would continue to benefit chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market capitalization swelled to US$2 trillion for the first time following a 4.25 percent rally in its American depositary receipts (ADR) overnight, putting the world’s biggest contract chipmaker sixth on the list of the world’s biggest companies by market capitalization, just behind Amazon.com Inc. The site CompaniesMarketcap.com ranked TSMC ahead of Saudi Aramco and Meta Platforms Inc. The Taiwanese company’s ADRs on Tuesday surged to US$385.75 on the New York Stock Exchange, as strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications led to chip supply constraints and boost revenue growth to record-breaking levels. Each TSMC ADR represents
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS