A number of top politicians in southern Taiwan were indicted on corruption and other charges by Tainan prosecutors on Friday night, including the speaker and vice speaker of the Tainan City Council and the speaker of the Tainan County Council.
"A total of 68 defendants were indicted in three cases," said Fan Wen-hao (
Tainan City Council Speaker Huang Yu-wen (黃郁文) and Vice-Speaker Wong Chow-cheng (翁朝正) were indicted for bribery, blackmail and coercion.
Prosecutors recommended the court sentence Huang to 17 years in prison and fine him NT$100 million (US$ 2.9 million).
They have asked for a 12-year term and NT$30 million for Wong.
Prosecutors allege that Huang and Wong received more than NT$100 million from the Yiching Construction Co in order to arrange for the firm to win a construction job in the Heshuenliao (何順寮) agricultural area.
They said that Huang and Wong, as members of their council's construction committee, were responsible for reducing the budget of the Heshuenliao project from NT$240 million to NT$190 million and that the two men had orchestrated requirements on materials and other details to the Yiching's advantage.
Former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), National Federation of Construction chairman Pan Chun-jung (潘俊榮), and Tainan County Councilor Lee Chuan-fu (李全富) were indicted on forgery charges for allegedly trying to arrange for other companies to be selected in the Heshuenliao tender process. Prosecutors have asked for 28-month jail terms for all three.
Tainan County Council Speaker Wu Chien-bao (吳健保) and Councilor Lee Chuan-fu, meanwhile, have been indicted on bribery and theft for their alleged involvement in illegal quarrying.
The prosecution has recommended a four-years-and-two-month sentence for Wu and five years for Lee.
The prosecutors allege that Wu and Lee illegally quarried sand from the Tsengwen River (
The prosecutors said Wu ran the Tainan-based Fu-hsin Co, which won a public bid in March last year to dredge the river's channel.
They said the contract called for the company to quarry silt from the river and deepen its channel to 4m. However, Fu-hsin deepened the channel to 13m, and then sold the dredged sand to construction companies while partially filling the channel with earth from the riverbank. The prosecutors said illegal quarrying had severely damaged the environment and endangered bridges along the river.
They said Lee had cooperated with Wu on the sand scam.
Tainan City Council Vice Speaker Tseng Shun-liang (
Prosecutors said Tseng also ran an illegal gambling operation that bet on professional baseball games.
Prosecutors have recommended a three-years-and-six-months term for Tseng.
Lee and Wu are both members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). All of the other politicians were elected as independents.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS