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.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
RSS