Taichung prosecutors yesterday said they will order the arrest and possible extradition from the US of former Legislative Yuan speaker Liu Sung-pan (
"Prosecutors have five times informed him to serve his imprisonment, but Liu did not appear. To follow the Criminal Procedure Code, prosecutors will promulgate an order for his arrest this week," said Chang Hung-mo (
"Because Liu has stayed in the US since his trial, prosecutors might ask US authorities to extradite Liu back to Taiwan," Chang added.
Liu's lawyer Lo Feng-yin (
Liu was found guilty last September of accepting NT$150 million (US$4.7 million) in kickbacks from Tseng Cheng-jen (
Taichung prosecutors have five times informed Liu he must serve his prison time: in September last year, January, March, May, and most recently, on July 15. Five times, Liu has failed to appear. Liu's lawyer has each time sent medical documents to prosecutors claiming that Liu was unable to fly back to Taiwan.
Prosecutors said the medical documents were not authorized by the appropriate US officials.
Liu allegedly used the dirty money to solicit votes for his 1999 campaign for the legislative speakership. During the campaign, investigators say, Liu issued as many as 100 checks, of which some 20 were given to legislators.
Liu, a nine-term legislator, was legislative speaker between 1991 and 1998.
Last fall, the Supreme Court found that Liu helped Chihching Corp (
In November 1998, the bank approved a NT$1.5 billion loan for Chihching without making a proper assessment of the company's creditworthiness.
Following approval of the loan, Chihching paid Tseng a huge commission, and Tseng gave Liu NT$150 million in kickbacks, the court found.
The Supreme Court sentenced Tseng to 11 years in prison for financial irregularities totaling roughly NT$20 billion.
Liu told the court that he had only borrowed the NT$150 million from Tseng, and that he just hasn't returned it yet.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS